Marza Animation Studio Marza Releases Sonic-less sequel to "Night of the Werehog".

[StaticMania]

I figure "Marza created these characters and just wanted to use that again" is the only satisfying and worthwhile reason necessary in understanding why this short exists.

[Zaysho]

lol why does anyone think Flynn is calling the final shots on "canon" and he's not just the messenger making sense of whatever material Sega figuratively dumps on his desk (which, evidently, would include these characters and it seems more like it was a background detail the artist put in and got approval for)? Even if he has some pull to suggest things (and likely from whatever is available to him), Sonic Team/Iizuka/whoever are the ones that get final approval and they're the ones that make up all the stupid shit that everyone else has to deal with as well as the ones who change it on a whim.

You can try to make the argument that the Marza ghosts don't fit, I guess, but they were used in Sonic material before and were completely at home in Unleashed, the game they were actually part of promotional material for. There was a reason people didn't even know they were Marza mascots until a few years ago and there clearly isn't any issue continuing to acknowledge them as a part of the Sonic universe.

"Canon" is just a distraction from any worthwhile discussion.