Credit: Paramount Pictures

I hope it’s called “Sonic 2: Gotta Go Faster.”

The movie adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog, which hit theaters earlier this year, set a pretty impressive new standard for movies based on video games, earning the title of highest grossing opening weekend for a movie based on a game. It wasn’t an especially amazing movie, mind you, pretty average overall, but that certainly beats the utter garbage video game movies brought to the table a few decades ago. At the end of the movie, there’s a sequel hook where Sonic’s iconic sidekick, Miles “Tails” Prower, flies around, looking for him, but Paramount Pictures said not too long ago that there wasn’t a sequel in development. Welp, they sure changed their tune quickly.

Credit: Paramount Pictures

In an exclusive announcement on Variety, Paramount Pictures and Sega Sammy confirmed that development has officially begun on a sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog. All of the major staff from the first film will be returning for the second, including Jeff Fowler as director, and Pat Casey and Josh Miller writing the script. Development is still super early, though, so no decisions have been made on casting or a date for filming to start, though it’s probably a safe assumption that Ben Schwartz will return to provide Sonic’s voice.

Sonic the Hedgehog was also one of the first major theatrical releases to receive an early home video/streaming release due to the pandemic. This is just pontificating on my part, but Paramount may be eager to get a second movie in the oven to help recoup the losses from ticket sales. Or maybe they already have character models for Sonic’s friends and they just want to do something with them, I dunno.