A Mexican Game News outlet by the name of “Gamer Style” claimed that character and comic artist Tyson Hesse, known for his work in the Sonic the Hedgehog series aided Paramount in the redesign of the titular character for the upcoming film.

The claim has been confirmed by multiple reporters who attended a Mexican Animation event known as Pixelatl in which Tyson held a small panel where he announced his involvement in the character’s redesign.

Gamer Style Twitter says:

While there is no recording of the panel, there is one small screenshot showing Tyson standing on a podium giving a presentation on a small panel room with several reporters present.

A projection screen showing a sketch of the titular character can be seen; however, this is not to be confused as a WIP sketch of the movie’s design of the character. The sketch seen in the screenshot is an animated frame from a series of web animations titled Sonic Mania Adventures, available on the Sonic the Hedgehog official youtube page to which Tyson directed and help animate.

The current final design of the character is still unknown.

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie released its first trailer back on the 30th of April revealing the first look of the iconic character in live-action to a wild backlash from the fanbase.

The fans were so appalled by the design of the character that the outcry reached popular online creators, mainstream media outlets and talk show hosts such as Stephen Colbert.

The backlash lead to the project’s director Jeff Fowler to make a statement on Twitter:

Soon after, the movie was then delayed for three months from its original November opening in 2019 to Valentine’s day, 2020.

Jeff Fowler would then tweet this mysterious sketch of Sonic holding a sign featuring the new release date. Fans were then quick to point out that the arm of the character differed from the way it appeared in the trailer earlier in April.

The sketch above features an arm with a gloved hand, whereas Sonic in the film had bare hands with white fur to simulate the look of the gloves. It was then widely speculated that the sketch of the arm holding the sign might’ve been illustrated by comic artist Tyson Hesse who could’ve been hired to redesign the character given his past, exceptional contribution in the series. However, there was no confirmation of his involvement at the time leaving this as a mere rumor. But, given the new evidence that has emerged from the Animation event at Pixelatl, this rumor appears to have some credence to it.

To top it off, a few weeks after the first poster showing off a dark outline of the character’s design, Tyson went to Twitter to share a mock drawing he made to quickly redesign the character in his own art style.

This was meant to be as a joke, of course, but, it’s speculated that this drawing and his reputation in the franchise might’ve caught Paramount’s attention to hire him and fix their mistake.

As such, this drawing of the movie’s design by Tyson back in March could serve as a good indicator of how the final redesign may look like.

For those who may not know, Tyson Hesse a graphic novel illustrator and writer best known for his work in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. He contributed to the animation for the intro of 2017’s platforming game Sonic Mania, as well as the aforementioned web shorts Sonic Mania Adventures. He also illustrated some of the comics for the now-defunct Sonic Archie comics, as well as the current ongoing line of comics at IDW.

Some official Art of Tyson involving Sonic.

Given his efficiency at animating and designing the character, his involvement in the film seemed like the logical step after the backlash involving the previous design. As of now, there has been no official confirmation by Tyson himself about his involvement in the film, but given the validity of the leak, it’s expected to be addressed sometime in the coming months .