Rumor: Sonic Mania Veterans at Evening Star Reportedly Working on Ape Escape Revival

Could the team behind Sonic Mania be taking a swing at Ape Escape next?

That’s the latest rumor doing the rounds, with Evening Star now being named as the studio reportedly developing Sony’s long-awaited return to the Ape Escape series.

The story actually begins a few days before the October 6 reports. On October 1, insider NateTheHate strongly hinted that Sony was preparing to revive Ape Escape, later adding that Team Asobi is not developing it and that Bandai Namco was also not involved “to my knowledge.”

The Evening Star connection appeared on October 5, when Reddit user IcyPenguin28 joined the same GamingLeaksAndRumours discussion and said they had “a couple credible sources” pointing to the studio.

Asked where that information was coming from, IcyPenguin28 said both sources have ties to Evening Star. One had apparently mentioned Ape Escape by name over the phone as a project currently in development, while the other suggested there was a reason Evening Star had not been hiring junior staff.

IcyPenguin28 did hedge their own claim, saying it could still turn out to be a misunderstanding, a red herring, or even a pitch that never made it beyond PlayStation. But that October 5 comment appears to be where the Evening Star part of the rumor actually started, before it was amplified by PlayStation-focused accounts and picked up by outlets such as Push Square the following day.

And yes, there are a few pieces around Evening Star that make the claim easy enough to picture.

The studio is currently hiring a Senior 3D Character Artist for its “current project,” specifically asking for experience with anime-stylized characters alongside high-poly modeling, sculpting, texturing and animation. That listing has been public since at least July 2025, though, so it isn’t some newly discovered clue pointing directly at Ape Escape.

Evening Star also already has a full 3D platformer under its belt with Penny’s Big Breakaway, while the studio’s current team still includes Christian Whitehead, Hunter Bridges and Brad Flick, all closely tied to the development lineage behind Sonic Mania.

There’s another detail we already knew: Evening Star is working on something that isn’t Sonic.

Sonic City reported back in August that the studio had another project underway, while Takashi Iizuka confirmed that no new Sonic collaboration with the former Mania developers was currently moving forward. Both sides remain open to working together again in the future.

So if this rumor is on the money, that mystery project may have been sitting under a very different PlayStation-shaped hat all along.

For Sonic fans, that makes this one worth keeping an eye on. Evening Star has already shown what it can do with a fast-moving 3D platformer in Penny’s Big Breakaway, and if the rumor holds up, its next project could be the return of one of PlayStation’s strangest platforming mascots.

Stay tuned to Sonic City for more Sonic the Hedgehog News and Updates!