'Sonic the Hedgehog 2' has fun with gold rings & Chaos Emeralds in final trailer for video game sequel

SEGA fans, rejoice! Paramount Pictures just premiered the final trailer for its sequel to 2020's Sonic the Hedgehog. Golden rings that can transport you to any location in the universe are sooo last movie. Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey doing his thing) is back from his fungal-based exile and has somehow figured out a way to harness the power of a new all-powerful MacGuffin: the Chaos Emeralds.

With a moody, red-quilled echidna called Knuckles (Idris Elba) at his side, the mustache-twirling villain plans to wipe out humanity and the blue speedster in one fell swoop. Of course, we fully expect to see Knuckles and Sonic become friends by the end of the story. Think about it: they can team up against Shadow in the next big screen cinematic chapter.

Until that happens, though, the titular hedgehog (once again voiced by House of Lies' Ben Schwartz) has an anthropomorphic animal ally of his own in the form of Tails, the two-tailed Fox (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey), who was briefly teased at the very end of the last installment. James Marsden (Tom Wachowski) Tika Sumpter (Maddie Wachowski), Lee Majdoub (Agent Stone), Natasha Rothwell (Rachel), Adam Pally (Wade Whipple), and Shemar Moore (his role is TBD) round out the human side of the cast.

Watch the final trailer below:

"I think of it as like Sonic's been in one fight, really," returning director Jeff Fowler told Collider back in December. "He beat Robotnik at the end of the first movie, but he's got a lot of learning to do before he can become sort of the true hero, and that's what's great about bringing in Knuckles, is it's going to test Sonic in all these great ways, and I think fans are just going to love seeing how they go at it, and just what that does for Sonic's sort of hero arc."

The sequel was produced by Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, Toru Nakahara, and Hitoshi Okuno. Haruki Satomi, Yukio Sugino, Shuji Utsumi, Nan Morales, and Tim Miller are executive producers.

Written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 hits the big screen Friday, April 8 — a little over two years after its predecessor, which brought in almost $320 million at the global box office just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the follow-up can match or surpass that, you can bet the announcement of a trilogy capper won't be too far behind.

"Even as we're working through the visual effects and animation on this film, it's impossible not to already get excited and to be starting to scheme about all the directions that the story could go, what new characters coming in, the impact that they could have," Fowler continued. "It's the best part of the creative process when it's just kind of a blank canvas and you can really just start to have blue sky ideas, even if, again, it' not in an official capacity. If the request comes through to start laying the blueprints for another Sonic film, I will be armed and ready with all kinds of ideas. I would just love to get that opportunity."

Tickets are now on sale, but fans also have a chance of seeing the film two days early on Wednesday, April 6 at a number of participating theaters. Per the official release, "commemorative gifts commissioned for this event will be given to each ticket-holder. Each fan attending the event will receive an exclusive, limited edition Collector’s Print designed by artist Tyson Hesse, best known for his work on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise; and a limited-edition comic book reprinted with cinema-exclusive cover art illustrated by Nathalie Fourdraine, an illustrator and animation concept artist who contributes to the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic series."

Check out the new poster below, which pays direct homage to the box art for the Sonic 2 video game released in 1992:

Photo: Paramount Pictures