As more characters join the Sonic the Hedgehog movie series, fans have been curious when their favourite big cat – Big the Cat – will pop up.

Speaking to IGN alongside the launch of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the movie series’ writing duo Pat Casey and Josh Miller revealed a Big the Cat cameo had actually been written for the previous film – only to be left on the cutting room floor.

(There’s no spoilers here for the new movie, we should add.)

In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Big the Cat would have popped up in skeletal form as Sonic passed through a cave. Within it, viewers would have gotten a quick glimpse at Big’s decomposed body. Dark.

Still, confusingly, this might not have been the Big the Cat fans know and love, the duo continued – which perhaps is why the sequence never made it on screen.

“In one draft of Sonic 2, 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 said.

“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-”

“Not necessarily the Big the Cat,” Miller interjected.

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

So, no Big the Cat. But on the upside, for fans of the character, no dead Big the Cat either.

Fans have previously celebrated whenever Big has popped up over the years – in Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Racing, Sonic Prime and even Lego Dimensions.

“Sega and Paramount more closely align game and film worlds for an authentic Sonic romp with added Keanu cool,” Ed wrote in Eurogamer’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film review.

What’s next for the Sonic films after Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s post-credits scene? Eurogamer’s resident Sonic fan Ed has a spoilery guide.