Sonic the Hedgehog Extended Universe

The Sonic the Hedgehog Extended Universe is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of films produced by Sega Sammy Group, Original Film, Marza Animation Planet, and Blur Studio and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The films are based on the video game series Sonic the Hedgehog, published by Sega. The franchise also includes television series and literature.

The first film SHEU film is Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), which began Zone(Phase) 1. Zone 2 began with Sonic Adventure and concluded with Silver the Hedgehog. Zone 3 began with Sonic Riders and concluded with Sonic Lost World. Zone 4, the final Zone of the film franchise, began with Sonic Colors and concluded with Sonic Frontiers,

In 2022, Paramount announced a Knuckles-centric series for Paramount Plus. This would later set up future Sonic themed programming for the streamer. The SHEU also contains tie-in "pre-quill" comics that are set before the films. A video game title based on the film series was also produced.

The franchise has been both critically and commercially successful, with the most praise aimed towards the acting and visuals.

Development
In 2013, Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the rights to produce and distribute a Sonic film. On June 10, 2014, a live-action animated film was announced as a joint venture between Sony Pictures’ Columbia Pictures and Marza Animation Planet, a Japan-based subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings which had produced CGI cutscenes for several Sonic games. It would be produced by Neal H. Moritz by his Original Film banner alongside Takeshi Ito, Mie Onishi, and Toru Nakahara, and written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux. In February 2016, Sega CEO Hajime Satomi said the film was scheduled for 2018. Blur Studio's Tim Miller and Jeff Fowler were hired in 2016 to develop it; Fowler would make his feature directorial debut, and Miller would serve as executive producer. Blur Studio previously produced cutscenes for the games Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), for which Fowler directed cutscenes, and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Patrick Casey, Josh Miller, and Oren Uziel were writing the screenplay, while Casey and Miller wrote the story.

On October 2, 2017, Paramount Pictures announced that they had acquired the rights after Sony put the film in turnaround. Almost all of the production team remained unchanged. In February 2018, it was announced that the film would be released in November 2019. During production the film used the working title "Casino Night", named after one of the stages in the Sonic games. Early drafts featured Sonic's Super Sonic form from the video games. The ideas were discarded as Fowler felt "it didn't make sense to obviously bring in the Super Sonic thing just yet” and wanted to focus on the origins of Sonic and Robotnik's relationship.

By 2022, Fowler announced plans for a Sonic Cinematic Universe, which kicked off in 2022 with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, where a third film and Knuckles tv series were announced ahead of thr film's release.

Zone 1:

 * 1) Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
 * 2) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
 * 3) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
 * 4) Sonic the Hedgehog CD (2027)
 * 5) Sonic Advance (2027)
 * 6) Sonic the Hedgehog '06 (2029)

Zone 2:

 * 1) Sonic Adventure
 * 2) Tails the Fox
 * 3) Sonic Rush
 * 4) Sonic Heroes
 * 5) Shadow the Hedgehog
 * 6) Sonic Mania
 * 7) Sonic Unleashed
 * 8) Silver the Hedgehog

Zone 3:

 * 1) Sonic Riders
 * 2) Sonic Battle
 * 3) Sonic Rivals
 * 4) Knuckles' Chaotix
 * 5) Sonic the Hedgehog: Fire and Ice
 * 6) Sonic Lost World

Zone 4:

 * 1) Sonic Colors
 * 2) Amy Rose
 * 3) Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
 * 4) Sonic Rivals 2
 * 5) Sonic Forces
 * 6) Blaze the Cat
 * 7) Sonic Generations
 * 8) Sonic Frontiers