Madonna was supposed to be a love interest for Sonic the Hedgehog during the early development of Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). She was scrapped from the final release along with other ideas, including the early idealized Sound Test with Sonic and his band.
Concept and creation
Naoto Ohshima designed Madonna as "male fantasy", who would chase Sonic around,[1] although it hasn't been made clear what role she is supposed to play in the game.
Overview

Screenshot of Madonna and Sonic taken from Tokyo Toy Show in 1990.[2]
Madonna was a blonde haired skinny human woman in a form-fitting red dress and was actually going to be Sonic's girlfriend. At some point in the early development, Madonna was dropped from the final game along with other Naoto Ohshima's ideas.
There have been two kinds of claims for the removal. Madeline Schroeder from Sega of America claims to be one who removed her from the final release as her reason being to "soften" Sonic for children and foreign countries, because she thought it was too Japanese-esque.[1] However, Yuji Naka stated that reason for removing her was to due the overused cliche of saving the kidnapped heroine that is also featured in the rivaling Super Mario Bros. series, so the staff team decided to change the story direction to center around the conflict between Sonic and Dr. Eggman.[3][4]
While many concept illustrations of Madonna has circled around the internet for years, two concept art related to her are featured as unlockable content in Sonic Gems Collection.
In other media
Archie Comics

Madonna in the Archie Comics.
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, Madonna, full name Madonna Garnet, is an agent of G.U.N. and a member of the organization's C.L.I.P. division. She first appeared in Sonic Super Digest #12, where she reviewed Dr. Julian Snively's history with G.U.N.
Trivia
- Tom Kalinske once said in an interview that Madonna was not the appropriate girlfriend for Sonic.
- Naoto Ohshima said in an interview for Famitsu that some elements of Madonna were passed on to Amy Rose.[5]
Gallery
Concept artwork
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sonic the Hedgehog GameTap Retrospective Part 2. GameTap (17 February 2009). Retrieved on 3 May 2015.
- ↑ SGGG MANIAX - 幻のソニック. Retrieved on 3 May 2015.
- ↑ "The People Making Sega’s Future". ビープ!メガドライブ. SoftBank. January 1993. pp. 46-48https://mdshock.com/2021/12/28/the-people-making-segas-future/.
- ↑ Summer of Sonic - Sonic Team Q&A 2011. The Sonic Show (2 July 2012). Retrieved on 3 May 2015.
- ↑ レイ, 馬波 (24 June 2016). 『ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ』誕生・ヒット・新生の真実をソニックチームのレジェンドクリエイターが、25周年のいま明かす 秘蔵資料満載の永久保存版!(2/5) (Japanese). Famitsu. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved on 1 October 2020.