Sonic the Hedgehog 2 director Jeff Fowler addresses the possibility of a Super Smash Bros. movie crossover being produced in the future. Published by Nintendo, the crossover fighting game franchise has been the talk of the fighting game community for the past two decades since the original title launched in 1999 for the Nintendo 64 bringing the studio’s various characters together to battle one another. Unlike normal entries in the genre, the Super Smash Bros. games sees players fighting one another to either increase their damage to a point of knocking out or pushing their opponents off the stage.
The Super Smash Bros. franchise has included five installments thus far, the most recent being the Nintendo Switch-based Ultimate, which has received rave reviews for further building on the gameplay mechanics and visuals and has become the best-selling fighting game of all time, selling over 25 million copies as of June 2021. As the franchise has expanded to different consoles, various characters from non-Nintendo franchises have made their way to the games as well, including SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog, Capcom’s Street Fighter, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy and Konami’s Metal Gear. While Super Smash Bros. Ultimate continues to dominate the fighting game genre on consoles, some are hopeful to see it make its way to the big screen.
While speaking with ComicBook.com for the release of the sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 director Jeff Fowler opened up about the possibility of a Super Smash Bros. movie crossover. The filmmaker noted there would need to be some intricate discussions between studios to bring the brawler to life on the big screen, but is hopeful it can be done. See what Fowler shared below:
“Nothing would make me happier than to just throw all the characters into a battle royale and do a big Smash Bros. thing. That would probably require some work from the lawyers before that could happen. Getting Mario and Sonic in the ring, I mean everyone would be kinda dying for that, right? That’s just classic.”
As Fowler notes, there would need to be a lot of legal cooperation between multiple film and game studios to bring a Super Smash Bros. movie to life. Paramount Pictures currently holds the rights to the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, which have begun building their own franchise as a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles the Echidna series are already in development ahead of Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s release, while Universal Pictures is behind the upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated movie. Additionally, the rights of the Street Fighter franchise have exchanged hands across the various panned movie adaptations while Sony have distributed nearly every Final Fantasy adaptation and are behind the long-gestating Metal Gear Solid movie adaptation starring Oscar Isaac and directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts.
Despite the various hurdles such a crossover could create, the possibility of a Super Smash Bros. movie is likely not entirely out of the question. Should Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog franchise continue to prove to be as financially successful as critically and Universal’s Super Mario Bros. movie outshine its poorly-received first adaptation, the studios might find some interest in exploring the possibility of their collision on the big screen with the help of fans campaigning for it. In the meantime, audiences can catch up with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 now in theaters.
Key Release Dates
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Release Date:2022-04-08
