The voice of Sonic has been found for the speedy blue hedgehog’s upcoming jump to the silver screen. Ben Schwartz (Parks & Recreation) will voice the title character in Sonic The Hedgehog, joining a cast that already includes James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, and Jim Carrey in what will be a live-action hybrid.
The film will be directed by Jeff Fowler, who earned an Oscar nomination in 2005 for his animated short Gopher Broke. Neal H. Moritz is producing for Paramount with Deadpool director Tim Miller on board as executive producer.
The film is obviously based on the famous Sega video game franchise. Originally launched in 1991, variations of the game have sold over 360 million copies to date. It revolves around Sonic’s quest to defeat the evil Doctor Robotnik, a scientist who has imprisoned animals within robots and has also stolen magical Chaos Emeralds.
This will be just the latest classic animated character Schwartz will be voicing. He currently plays Dewey Duck on Disney Channel’s Duck Tales reboot, and will voice Leonardo in Nickelodeon’s Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s no surprise that he’s become a popular choice for voicing characters as he’s always had great comic timing and a variety of vocal inflections.
The project had originally been in the works at Sony, but the studio let the film rights lapse, allowing Paramount to snatch up the project last October. The studio has already set a holiday release date of November 15, 2019 for the film.
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