Sonic: The Hedgehog: The 2019 Cut edits Ugly Sonic back into the first movie, but its trailer was ironically delayed due to its creators "not being completely happy with the final result"

Ugly Sonic is back. The nightmare fuel version of the Blue Blur, which was widely mocked upon the release of the 2020 movie's first trailer before being overhauled, is the subject of a fan-led effort to tweak the first movie and release it as it was originally intended.

Described as a "full fan–made reconstruction of the original 2019 version of Sonic The Hedgehog" by its creators, there were originally plans for a trailer to launch on December 10.

As of writing, however, a brief two-second clip of Ugly Sonic running in a washing machine has been released. A further reply indicates that the trailer has now been delayed due to (ironically) not being "completely happy" with the final result. They added, "It would have gotten some negative reviews if we'd released it today."

Back in 2019, Sonic the Hedgehog's first trailer dropped – to almost universal backlash. Its director, Jeff Fowler, immediately put himself in the firing line, tweeting, "Thank you for the support. And the criticism. The message is loud and clear... you aren't happy with the design & you want changes. It's going to happen."

"It was pretty clear on the day the trailer was released just seeing the feedback and hearing the feedback… that fans were not happy enough with where we were at," Fowler later told GamesRadar+.

From there, the team literally went back to the drawing board and the rest is history: three successful Sonic films later (with Sonic 4 and an 'event' movie on the way) and Hollywood's unlikeliest comeback story was complete.

For more on Sonic's cinematic future, check out our guide to upcoming video game movies. Then race on over to our ranking of best Sonic games.