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SYFY WIRE Sonic the Hedgehog

Godzilla star O'Shea Jackson Jr. wants angry Sonic the Hedgehog fans to chill

By Jordan Zakarin
Sonic the Hedgehog Teeth

O'Shea Jackson Jr.'s message to angry Sonic the Hedgehog fans: Gotta slow down.

The Godzilla: King of the Monsters star is a lifelong geek and counts Sega Genesis on his list of favorite properties. The fact that he once listed the original kaiju as one of his five personal heroes has gotten plenty of buzz during the Godzilla press tour, but what has gone under-reported is that Sonic the Hedgehog also earned a slot on that list. With that in mind, it wouldn't have been a shock to hear him echo the chorus of fans unhappy with the design of the Sonic character in the upcoming big screen adaptation, but Jackson had a very different response when asked about the look of the blue blur at the Godzilla premiere.

"I think the internet has too much power. You shouldn't be able to make somebody change their design on how they view a piece of art," Jackson told SYFY WIRE. "At a certain point, we just have to be fans again."

O'Shea Jackson Godzilla red carpet

Fans wigged out upon the release of the Sonic trailer, complaining that Sonic's body was unfaithful to the video game's depiction and that his human teeth were downright terrifying. The backlash was so overwhelming that director Jeff Fowler offered a mea culpa on Twitter and promised to redesign the character by the movie's fall release date. Jackson falls on the side of the artist here, and chalks up a lot of the outrage to fans that are inherently impossible to please.

"I remember when the only time you could see a trailer was when you were in a movie theater," he said. "Now with the internet, we have an opinion about a film before we can even sit down with it and it's only because it doesn't match whatever came to your head, whoever you are. Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches."

One thing all fans can agree on: Godzilla's latest re-design is pretty cool.