Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is just under a month away, and that means we are a mere three weeks from hearing Keanu Reeves voice Shadow the Hedgehog. Today, Paramount has released the second trailer for the film, and we get to see a little bit more of Shadow and the returning cast, as well as get a better sense of how the movie will adapt the story of Sonic Adventure 2.
While the movie’s first trailer implied Sonic and Jim Carrey’s Doctor Robotnik would be teaming up against Shadow, the second reveals that the villain will be working with Shadow, along with his apparently living grandfather, Gerald Robotnik (also played by Carrey). Gerald was always an interesting inclusion for an adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, as the Dreamcast platformer’s story was set entirely after his death. But Carrey seems to be playing him a bit, uh, sillier than he’s seen in most Sonic media, which I’m not thrilled by out of context. So maybe this is all in the interest of bringing some levity to the otherwise dark events of Shadow’s backstory.
Otherwise, the trailer shows that a lot of elements from Sonic Adventure 2 will show up in the movie, including what looks like the Space Colony Ark space station Shadow was born on, and his use of the Eclipse Cannon to destroy part of the moon. It also gives him a gun as a callback to his self-titled game, Shadow the Hedgehog. I never thought I’d see the day an officially-licensed Sonic thing would give Shadow firearms again. But here we are. It’s the Year of Shadow, baby.
Check out the full trailer below:
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will apparently include a big tease about what comes next for the franchise, and even though the series uses up one of its biggest possible reveals in Shadow, there’s still a lot of territory the movies haven’t covered yet. Fans are hoping Amy Rose will finally make her live-action debut, as she’s such an important character to the cast dynamic. Plus, after three entries, we still don’t have movie versions of any of the series’ other female characters, including Rouge the Bat, so it’s about time one of the two made an appearance. I’m still holding out hope that Rouge might secretly be in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and this is a Spider-Man: No Way Home situation in which marketing and trailers are purposefully omitting her, to preserve the surprise for moviegoers. Leave me to cope.
Shadow’s appearance in Sonic 3 is the last big moment of the Year of Shadow campaign Sega has been running in 2024 to celebrate the antihero. In October, Sega released Sonic X Shadow Generations which included an entirely new game starring Shadow, and it’s probably the best 3D Sonic game Sega has put out in over 20 years. It’s a nice redemption story, after Sega did the character dirty over the past two decades. Plus, he didn’t even wield guns this time.