When Paramount committed to the idea of a Sonic redesign after many fans despised his original look for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, questions immediately arose of how much it would all cost. Recently, a rumor was born from a largely unsubstantiated tweet that the Sonic redesign had cost the movie studio an estimated $35 million. However, IndieWire is refuting this, citing a source “close to the production” that estimates the cost at “less than $5 million” for Paramount.

At the time the first Sonic movie trailer had dropped, reportedly the only completed VFX for the film were the ones seen in that trailer. Thus, while inevitably a great deal of rework had to be done to accommodate a new design, it was not an overwhelmingly enormous amount. As such, a figure in the ball park of $5 million sounds a lot more reasonable than $35 million.

Reception to the Sonic redesign in the new movie trailer has been resoundingly positive and earned Paramount a lot of good will back. However, a VFX designer involved in the Sonic redesign has said in since deleted and hidden tweets that the redesign was more or less actually what the special effects team had wanted to use in the first place. That said, longtime Sonic artist Tyson Heese was brought on to lead the redesign efforts.

Are you surprised by this new estimated cost for the Sonic redesign, or does it sound a lot more practical than $35 million?

[Source/Via]