Sonic the Hedgehog 4 release date and latest news

Based on the hit video game franchise, the films revolve around Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) as he takes down his nemesis Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey).

Wondering when we can expect the fourth instalment in the franchise, who might return and what it might be about? Read on for everything you need to know.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 release date

The fourth film will land in cinemas on 19th March 2027, Deadline reports.

This will come as no surprise to fans of the franchise given that there's been a two-year gap between every sequel so far.

The fourth film was first reported to be in the works by Variety back in December, ahead of the third movie’s premiere.

The renewal news was later confirmed by Ben Schwartz, who voices the titular character, in a post on X (or Twitter), which read: "THIS. IS. NOT. A. DRILL. SONIC 4. 2027. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!".

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 cast: Who's set to return?

The film is still in its developmental stage, and there are no stars currently attached.

However, we'd expect Ben Schwartz to return given that he has voiced Sonic in every instalment of the franchise so far.

We’d also expect Colleen O'Shaughnessey to return as Tails, and Idris Elba to once again voice Knuckles.

Meanwhile, fans will remember that, while Shadow (Keanu Reeves) appeared to die in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, he was then revealed to be alive in a post-credits scene, meaning Reeves could well return as the character in the next movie, but this is yet to be confirmed.

Elsewhere, Tom Wachowski (played by James Marsden) and Maddie Wachowski (Tika Sumpter) will also likely be back to assist their superpowered friends.

One character who won’t be returning is Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik after he seemingly died in the third movie.

Speaking about the character, the film's writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller confirmed to GamesRadar that he is "completely dead… maybe".

"We hope that they make a zillion of these, and who knows, by Sonic the Hedgehog 8… like with the Fast & Furious franchise, that’s demonstrated that nobody really needs to stay dead if you don’t want to," Miller said.

Casey added: "I would say, 'Of course he’s dead, it was a space explosion, he’s completely dead… unless, maybe…' That all depends on Jim, I think.

"It's a very short list of actors who could have pulled this off, possibly there's only one name on it. Like, comedy is hard."

The post-credits scenes in the third film confirmed that Amy Rose and Metal Sonic will be joining the cast of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, but it's not yet clear who'll be voicing the characters.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 plot theories: What could it be about?

Plot details have yet to be announced, but it's looking like the new instalment could be some sort of adaptation of the Sonic Heroes video game, which is the next mainline game in the series after Sonic Adventure 2, which served as the main inspiration for Sonic 3.

The post-credits scenes in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 also paved the way for a Sonic Heroes-inspired fourth movie.

The first sequence introduced fans to Metal Sonic and Amy Rose, who are both key players in Sonic Heroes, while the second confirmed that Shadow is still alive.

Speaking recently to Dextero about which games could influence upcoming instalments, Fowler didn’t name any specific games, but said he wants to "honour and celebrate" other titles in the series.

 "I think the way we love working is just cherry-picking ideas that we think fans would be excited about and they go into a sort of melting pot," he explained.

"Obviously, with Sonic 3 going back to Sonic Adventure 2, where Shadow first appeared, it felt like that was the most obvious place to really be pulling story points and just the vibe that we think fans would get excited about seeing. So that was a very specific sort of focus.

"In terms of where things go from here, I think there’s a lot of inspiring elements and a lot of games that could influence it.

"You know, I don’t want to get too specific, but I will say the thing that’s always the most exciting for our team is when we’re coming to the end of one journey on a movie, and we plant those seeds for where things might go next, it’s hard to not just immediately get excited about all the possibilities."

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