Was the 'Sonic the Hedgehog' Redesign an Elaborate PR Stunt? Motherboard Discusses

The new Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog looks …. great! He looks like he probably should have looked in the first place. This has led to many memes (what a glow-up!), a second round of virality, and lots of goodwill for Paramount, which announced after fan backlash earlier this year that it would redesign Sonic from a longboi human bodysuit freak into the cute lovable hedgehog we remember from our childhoods.

In the months since he was originally revealed to the world, Sega fans and conspiracy theorists have suggested that, perhaps, the creepy Sonic from the Bad Old Days of spring was actually intended to gin up publicity for the movie and goodwill for Paramount. There is really no actual evidence to support this, and Paramount has said that in order to redesign Sonic, it had to push the release of the movie back and spend millions of dollars to literally go back to the drawing board.

All that said, the idea that Slenderman Sonic was a false flag information psy-op has taken hold not only online but also within the hallowed walls of the VICE Media newsroom. I spoke to Sam Cole and Emanuel Maiberg about the theory and, more importantly, how dare they? -Jason Koebler