The Sonic the Hedgehog film production team has delayed the movie's release once again. Originally slated for November 8, 2019, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie has been pushed back just over three months and will now see wide release on February 14, 2020. The announcement was made by the film's director, Jeff Fowler, who has been the public face of the project through its assorted challenges.

Those "challenges" include Sonic the Hedgehog's design for the upcoming movie. The production team went in an entirely new direction for Sonic the Hedgehog's design, and the fan community was very critical of Sonic's redesign. Fowler and crew ultimately capitulated that the character design needed work and agreed to rework things.

In his post on Twitter, Fowler says that the team is, "Taking a little more time to make Sonic just right." He then added the hashtag #novfxartistswereharmedinthemakingofthismovie, acknowledging worries that changing Sonic so late in the film's production would lead to harsh working conditions for visual effects artists as they scrambled to get the movie ready for November.

Three months may or may not be enough time for the artists to change Sonic the Hedgehog's appearance throughout the entire movie without relying on development crunch. But either way, fans will likely get what they wanted.

It's unlikely that Paramount could have predicted all of this controversy when the production company licensed Sonic the Hedgehog's rights two years ago. Still, this is one of the rare situations of a video game movie changing based on fan feedback. Most video game adaptations never seem to get the true green light, or otherwise fall apart mid-production, but whether Sonic the Hedgehog ends up being a good or even successful film is left for February's box office numbers.

The Sonic the Hedgehog film releases February 14, 2020.