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In 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog made the leap from video games to television, starring on the cartoon series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. The character was voiced by Jaleel White, the actor many viewers know as Steve Urkel. White became the first person to voice Sonic on a regular project, a role he would reprise for subsequent television shows like Sonic SatAM and Sonic Underground.

For many people, including myself, White was the first person we ever heard voice Sonic. Today, the character is more popular than ever, thanks to the popular Paramount film series. The new films use Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, but it would be nice to hear White make a cameo, similar to the way Mario voice actor Charles Martinet appeared in the 2023 Super Mario Bros. film.

“That would be way past cool,” White says during a 2021 Salt Lake City Comic Convention panel. “I don’t take any offense that I was never asked to be in the film. When these properties change hands, every executive wants to put their stamp on it. ‘This is my actor, this is one I picked. Yadda yadda yadda.’ And that’s just kind of the way it goes.”

White doesn’t take his absence personally, feeling that it’s more a studio thing than a creative thing. “I always like it when a director has the power to bring back people from the past that the fans would remember, but that generally only comes with the power of a director who wants to do that. Like a J.J. Abrams or somebody. Sonic was much more a producer run thing than it was a director thing. So, if they ever asked, I’d be there in a heartbeat.”

“[Sonic] was my side hustle in my high school days, me racing over to a recording studio in my mom’s car. It was so annoying because I would be like, ‘Dude, I got to do three episodes at once.’ It would just kind of take a long time, but I’m so grateful now that I look back on it. I had no clue that fans would love my rendition of the voice the way that they have all these years.”

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