Sonic the Hedgehog Film Writers Reveal the Big the Cat Cameo That Almost Was

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 zipped into theatres this past weekend, and so far we’re having a pretty good time with it. Amid the delight of learning there would be a fourth Sonic the Hedgehog film and finding out that the film’s ending teases yet another new Sonic character for that film, there’s still one major question on everyone’s minds: where is Big the Cat?

Okay, sure, it’s maybe not the most pressing question ever, but we did have a chance to sit down with Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller to ask where everyone’s favorite fisherman kitty has been all this time. And it turns out, they actually did write a cameo for Big the Cat into the second Sonic the Hedgehog film… only for it to be a bit too grim to make it to the final cut.

“In one draft of Sonic 2, we actually, when they’re going through the snowy mountains to the cave, we had a bit, because Sonic 2 was sort of an Indiana Jones,” Casey told us. “Indiana Jones, it’s a trope that at some point a skeleton pops out at you and scares you. So we were going to do that, but with a skeleton of a, I would say, a Big the Cat, not necessarily-“

Miller cuts in here, “Not necessarily the Big the Cat.”

“But we ended up cutting it,” Casey concludes. “It didn’t make any sense.”

Alas, we almost had a… dead Big the Cat in Sonic 2. The two writers said that “Big the Cat” is usually their joke answer when fans ask them who they want to add to the films, though they also informed me they’ve been unsuccessfully trying to get Rouge the Bat in as well for three fims straight.

Keep your eyes here at IGN for our full interview with Casey and Miller coming later this week, as well as all the latest on the Sonic the Hedgehog movies.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.