Warning: Spoilers ahead for Sonic Prime.When it comes to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, there have been quite a number of TV shows and, more recently, feature films for fans to enjoy. While spin-off media and adaptations have focused on many different aspects of the rather expansive Sonic the Hedgehog series, Sonic Prime makes itself one of the more ambitious takes on the blue hedgehog yet. As the story of the Netflix original series deals with Sonic single-handedly shattering reality as he knew it, the show covers themes of personal growth, betrayal, and teamwork in deep, impacting ways that make Prime one of the series' most epic stories yet.

Sonic Prime's ambitions didn't stop with its long, character-driven story, however. With the latest adjustments to Sonic lore and media as a whole, Sonic Team has stated that Sonic Prime is part of a connected Sonic universe with the games and IDW comics. Due to this announcement, fans had been wondering throughout the show's duration just where in the series' canon the show fits, with the understanding that it would make sense by the end. However, its placement after Sonic Advance 3 is a bit of a headscratcher.

Sonic smiling at Shadow in Sonic Prime
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Sonic Prime Takes Place Sometime After Sonic Advance 3

As Sonic Frontiers and Sonic IDW comic writer Ian Flynn is now a prominent member of an internal Sonic lore team at Sega, he's stated on X (formerly Twitter) that he would share where Sonic Prime fit in the canon timeline once the show was over to avoid "souring expectations by spoiling how Prime resolves." However, now that all the seasons of Sonic Prime are available to watch, Ian Flynn has revealed on the social media platform X that the Shatterverse adventure takes place "some time" after Sonic Advance 3.

Why Sonic Advance 3 is Important to Sonic Prime

In season 3 of Sonic Prime itself, a short pixel art flashback shows Sonic and Tails taking down Dr. Eggman in a mech powered by Gemerl. It uses sprites from Sonic Advance 3 itself to make it very clear that the events of the Game Boy Advance came before Sonic shattered the Paradox Prism. However, many fans have an issue with the idea that Sonic Prime takes place so early in the canon and after Advance 3 due to the appearance of Orbot and Cubot in Prime, characters who didn't appear until Sonic Colors.

This presents a problem because Orbot and Cubot's appearance in Colors can't be stretched to fit near Sonic Advance 3. Orbot's creation in particular was witnessed in Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Colors as he goes through a "prototype phase" of sorts as SA-55 before becoming Orbot in Colors with Cubot in tow. This lengthens the time that it took for Prime to happen rather considerably in terms of the timeline already understood by long-time fans, but with the use of the words "some time after Sonic Advance 3" this isn't entirely a wrong answer.

Narrowing Down When Sonic Prime Could Take Place

The use of Orbot and Cubot certainly places Prime after Sonic Colors, so that leaves a number of options still available when it comes to where the Netflix show could fit into the timeline. Sonic Generations certainly fits the boastful, cocky attitude that the blue blur uses in Prime, but it doesn't entirely suit Sonic to run in and break the Paradox Prism without knowing what could happen, and then learn nothing by the time he does a similar stunt in Sonic Lost World.

In the end, the best place to put Sonic Prime is either before Colors, making it Cubot's first proper appearance as Colors uses him but doesn't make a prominent show about it, or after. This means that Sonic's boastful attitude in Generations can be seen as him returning to his everyday life, with Sonic Lost World following as a swift reminder that he's settled back into normalcy and has forgotten what happened the last time he rushed in to stop Eggman without the help of his friends, especially Tails.

Either way, in the end Sonic Prime resets the timeline to before the events of the show happen, with only Sonic and Shadow remembering the events. As a result, if fans don't wish to think of where the show takes place, or simply didn't enjoy Sonic Prime, then they can ignore it if they wish to.