Sonic the Hedgehog’s Dr. Robotnik Shaves Mustache for First Time in 30 Years

As far as video game characters go, there are not many who have more iconic facial hair than Sonic’s Dr. Robotnik. The mustachioed villain is one of Sonic’s biggest nemesis and has never been seen without his trademark stache. Until now, that is. Recently, Sega announced that the evil doctor is going with a clean-shaven look for the first time in franchise history. Sonic fans can rest easy though, because Robotnik is changing his look for a good cause. The landmark shaving is happening to help celebrate Movember 2023.

Why is Dr. Robotnik Shaving for Movember?

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Robotnik might be best known for his attempts to take over the world using his many machines, but for at least one month he’s helping out a good cause. Movember is a charity that focuses on men’s health, most notably mental health and suicide prevention, as well as prostate cancer and testicular cancer. Every November, the charity asks men to grow out a mustache from a clean-shaven face to help spread awareness of the cause. The charity also encourages participants to walk or run 60 miles over the month to remember “the 60 men we lose to suicide each hour, every hour across the world.”

It’s certainly nice to see Robotnik supporting a good cause for once, and it’ll be interesting to see how much of his trademark mustache he’ll be able to regrow in a month. Of course, the obvious choice is for Sega to simply grow it back to its usual length, but it’d be fun to see if the doctor can grow it even further if given the chance. Whether Sega has fun with it or not, you have to love seeing the team using even its evil characters for good.

Will Sonic Get a New Game in 2024?

Sonic Superstars was just released earlier this month (starring Robotnik as the main villain), so you might expect Sega to take a break from the Blue Blur in 2024. After all, fans also got new story content for Sonic Frontiers in September. However, a recent rumor claims that Sega is targeting holiday 2024 for the next game in the long-running franchise. 

The rumor came from a leak that claimed fans would be getting a new Knuckles TV show and Season 3 of Sonic Prime in early 2024. Supposedly, Sega is also dropping DLC for Sonic Superstars at that time, but that’s not the new game. Instead, the leak claims that there will be some kind of new game launching alongside Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which is scheduled to hit theaters in December of next year.

Of course, at this point, we don’t know anything more than that. If this turns out to be true, we’ll probably start to hear about it next spring or summer. Either way, it seems like there is a ton of Sonic content on the way, making it a great time to be a fan of the franchise.

Sonic Superstars is out now on PlayStation, Switch, Xbox, and PC platforms.