Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) (2024)

Spoilers for previous entries in the Sonic the Hedgehog film series will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 2024 hybrid live-action/animated sci-fi action comedy film and the third theatrical installment/fourth overall entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog live-action film series based upon the video game franchise by Sega. It is once more directed by Jeff Fowler, written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, and reunites the cast of Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Idris Elba, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, Adam Pally, Tom Butler, Lee Majdoub, and Jim Carrey. New faces to the cast include Krysten Ritter, Alyla Browne, James Wolk, Sofia Pernas, Cristo Fernández, Jorma Taccone, and Keanu Reeves.

The third film finds Sonic (Schwartz) living his best life yet but is later forced to do battle with the mysterious Shadow (Reeves), an unknown figure, driven by tremendous pain, loss and a burning need for vengeance. But when Shadow's abilities outmatch the young heroes - and the extent of his threat becomes apparent - it will take everything Sonic and his friends have to stop his rampage… maybe even putting aside their differences with their bitter nemesis, Ivo Robotnik (Carrey), whose own origins intersect with Shadow's. It's the Blue Blur against the Ultimate Life-Form, and the stakes are higher than ever before.

The film is heavily inspired by the 3D games, particularly Sonic Adventure 2. Not to be confused with (though this movie and Knuckles' self-titled mini-series set in the same universe share a debut year and were announced simultaneously).

A DLC expansion for Shadow Generations based on the movie will be added in December 2024 as part of the game's Digital Deluxe Edition, giving a playable Movie Shadow skin (complete with a reprisal by Reeves) and a level based on Tokyo.

The film will premiere on December 20, 2024.

Previews: Title Treatment, Trailer Announcement, Trailer 1, Trailer 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 contains examples of the following:

• Actor Allusion: Gerald isn't the first character Jim Carrey has played who's an elderly antagonist in a Paramount film. Some fans have displayed the similarities between the two voices.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • While Shadow is absolutely no slouch, Sonic alone is shown to be a match for him in most adaptations and is able to consistently (if not necessarily easily) come out on top, and that most of the fighting he does is basically just using firearms. Here, he is the complete opposite, with him instead able to defeat all of Team Sonic and G.U.N. soldiers in just simply a matter of seconds.
  • If one can believe it, the Eclipse Cannon gets this treatment. In Adventure 2, it's powered by the Chaos Emeralds and manages to take a major dent out of the moon. And somehow, the movie version eclipses that by sawing it clean in half, as shown in the second trailer, while only being powered by Shadow's chaos energy.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • While most adaptations have Eggman involved in Shadow's release and rampage, the trailer has Ivo having been in hiding since the end of the last movie, thus having no role in it.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2 Shadow was almost constantly mistaken for Sonic by the public, which served to be a huge source of trouble for the blue hedgehog (with a plot of G.U.N. pursuing Sonic having been done in the previous movie). Here, according to the trailer, the misunderstanding appears to be completely absent, with G.U.N. having already dug up information on "Project Shadow" and Commander Walters is the one to explain Shadow's origins. Knowing the threat that Shadow poses, he seeks out Team Sonic to help stop Shadow.
  • In the games, none of the cast outside of Shadow ever met Gerald. The second trailer shows that Team Sonic do meet him in the flesh.
• Affectionate Nickname: In the first trailer, Ivo calls his grandfather "pop-pop". He also calls him "grandaddy-o" in the second trailer.
• Animal Mecha: Ivo is shown in the trailer to be operating an enormous Crabmeat-like mecha as a mobile hideout, which emerges from the Sumida River when Agent Stone arranges for Team Sonic to meet him.
• Answer Cut: In the trailer, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are in a helicopter, and Sonic wonders how they're going to find Shadow. Cue a massive explosion in the city they're overlooking.

  Tails: Start with the giant fireball?
  Sonic: I love it, let's start with the giant fireball!

• Break the Haughty:
  • As seen in the trailer, Ivo is suffering from this after his defeat from the last movie, falling into a depressive slump as he let himself go by having his weight increased from overeating in his hideout, and willing to team up with the heroes to stop a bigger threat out of spite under a condition that Sonic giving him another one of his quills. Even Knuckles lampshades how sad his situation is.

    Knuckles: This is sad, Robotnik. Even for you.

  • Downplayed with Team Sonic themselves in the trailer. They're happy and confident going into the battle with Shadow, and Knuckles is so enthusiastic about the idea of facing a new combatant that he doesn't think twice about charging him to attack. All of them are subjected to a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Call-Back: In the previous movie, Knuckles performed a Punch Catch on Sonic's whole body in order to stop his Spin Dash, and there was a Running Gag of the echidna unwittingly delivering Crushing Handshakes. In this film's trailer, it's Knuckles' punch that gets caught by Shadow, who then forcibly twists Knuckles' hand hard enough to make him cry out in pain.
• Casual High Drop: In the first trailer trailer, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles jump out of a high helicopter and land on the ground without any difficulty.
• Celebrity Paradox: As can be heard in the trailer, Shadow is voiced by Keanu Reeves, who was referenced back in the first movie along with his film Speed. Reeves was also mentioned in the Knuckles miniseries.
• Comically Missing the Point: In the first trailer, Tom talks to Sonic about how he was able to find a family and not change who he is inside, pointing to where his heart is. Sonic? Nods and says "Yeah. In my lungs."
• Company Cross-References: The Chao café in the trailer features a NiGHTS Chao. This specific Chao also has a sombrero and a pair of maracas that looks very similar from those that belongs to Amigo from Samba de Amigo.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the trailer, Ivo's first scene shows him wearing goggles with red-tinted, cracked lenses, which was the same pair he wore in his time on the Mushroom Planet. After he gets back into action, he trades these goggles for a new pair with green lenses, the same ones he had after absorbing the Master Emerald.
  • In the trailer, Eggman is once again referred to with disdain in the third-person before his reveal, as he was in the first movie.
  • This trailer also starts off with a voiceover of Tom having a heart-to-heart with Sonic.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In the trailer, Team Sonic's first encounter with Shadow goes horribly wrong: Shadow catches and twists Knuckles' punch with no effort, and from there it only takes him seconds to defeat him along with Sonic and Tails, with nobody being able to retaliate.
• Darker and Edgier: While not without levity, the first trailer has a much more dark and serious tone than the first two films, with a lot of time spent with characters discussing how dangerous Shadow is and seeing the destruction he can cause. It also includes shots of Shadow over Maria's body behind gobs of fire in the background, Tom screaming Sonic's name in distress (although a TV spot reveals this is because he and the others are in danger of being crushed by a boulder, which Sonic destroys), Shadow fighting G.U.N soldiers in a very detailed way, and Team Sonic getting K.O'd by Shadow. It actually reaches the point where the whole movie ends up feeling like a PG-13 film.
• Death of a Child: As seen in the trailer, Maria Robotnik, much like her game counterpart, is killed by GUN soldiers, which leads to Shadow's entire motivation throughout the film being to avenge her.
• Detonation Moon: The second trailer introduces the Eclipse Cannon… and shows it slicing the Earth’s moon in half.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • In the trailer, Ivo is childishly slapping his huge gut, until Team Sonic and Stone walk in on him to his horror and hurriedly pulls his shirt down, with Team Sonic reacting in disgust and making it sound like he was caught doing something else.
  • Ivo's reaction in the trailer to being exposed to one of Sonic's live quills gives the impression that it's like a drug he's been wanting to get back on for quite some time.
• Double Meaning: From the trailer, Shadow, in a deadpan tone, refers to Team Sonic as "a colorful bunch"; both referring to their bright colorful fur and their eccentricities.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In the trailer, Sonic admits that the team will need Robotnik's help to stop Shadow. The latter only agrees to help under a condition that Sonic give him another of his quill and doing it out of spite as he starts to get weary over his constant defeat.
  • Also in the trailer, GUN asks for Team Sonic's help in dealing with Shadow despite them being antagonists in the previous movie, albeit downplayed as they're more on good terms towards them by now.
• Environmental Symbolism: The first trailer juxtaposes Team Sonic and Shadow with multiple environments. The team is introduced in a sunlit forest while Shadow is in a dark laboratory, they first find Shadow in a burning city and in their confrontation in the sky, Sonic is backed by a city of lights while Shadow's backdrop is black clouds.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Both trailers show Shadow and Maria bonding, with the latter's death being the catalyst for the former's rampage.
  • At the end of the first trailer, Ivo Robotnik is genuinely moved to tears when he discovers his grandfather is still alive and well.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Downplayed; Shadow ends up picking up a gun just like his home series counterpart, but it's a GUN laser pistol instead of a real firearm.
• Follow the Chaos: In the trailer, Sonic asks how they're supposed to find Shadow... and quickly gets his answer when a massive fireball erupts on the streets below.
• Formerly Fit: When Sonic and company find him in the trailer, Robotnik has finally gained the large belly he had in the games.
• Free-Fall Fight: The trailer climaxes with Shadow charging down upon Sonic from the sky and Sonic jumping to meet him.
• Godzilla Threshold: The trailer showcases that, due to how powerful Shadow is, Sonic ultimately decides to team-up with Dr. Robotnik this time around, even willingly giving the doctor one of his quills.

  Sonic: I Can't Believe I'm Saying This, but we're gonna need you-know-who. (…)
  Tails: This is a bad idea.
  Sonic: When has that ever stopped me?

• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The trailer shows that, like the members of Team Sonic, Shadow's eyes glow when he uses his powers. Between his eyes being red, his powers being orange and red energy, and his destructive actions, the glow is very much an ill omen. The trailer includes a poignant shot of Shadow racing towards the camera, the scene dark and nighttime, but his eyes glowing bright.
• Identical Grandson: In the trailer Gerald Robotnik looks exactly like his grandson Eggman, with the only real differences being his white hair and numerous age spots. Their personalities also appear similar. It definitely helps that they are both portrayed by Jim Carrey.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Sonic says this verbatim in the trailer after Knuckles comments how Shadow looks a lot more formidable than "the last hedgehog he fought".

  Sonic: Dude, I'm standing right here.

• Instantly Proven Wrong: In the trailer, Sonic attempts to talk things out with Shadow by telling him that they (meaning he, Tails and Knuckles) don't want to fight him. Knuckles tells him that he does want to fight him and immediately attacks Shadow, which ends poorly.
• Internal Homage: From the trailer, Shadow's pose right before he catches Knuckles' punch is similar to one of his renders from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
• Jet Pack:
  • The first trailer shows Shadow retains his Air Shoes, which he uses to launch Sonic into the air.
  • The second trailer shows that Tails equipped a more traditional jet pack so that he could match Sonic and Knuckles' speed while flying.
• Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: Played for Laughs in a TV spot where Knuckles freaks out from watching a ghost movie.

  Knuckles: There's no such thing as a friendly ghost.

• Knight of Cerebus: The trailer makes it clear that Shadow is a threat not meant to be taken lightly, with him easily overpowering Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all at once.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Knuckles seems a little too eager to fight Shadow, as shown in the trailer.

  Sonic: We don't wanna fight you!
  Knuckles: [whispering] Actually Sonic, I would like to fight.
  Sonic: Knuckles, no! [Knuckles charges towards Shadow, only to get his fist broken]

• Lipstick-and-Load Montage: Male version and Played for Laughs. In the trailer, Eggman has become a total slob after his previous defeat, so after agreeing to work with Sonic there is a quick montage of him shaving his hair, grooming himself and getting a new outfit real quick.
• Logo Joke: The Paramount logo once more has rings in place of stars in the trailer, while Original Film's logo has red text against a black background, representing Shadow's color scheme.
• Market-Based Title: Similar to the second movie, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 releases in Japan under the title Sonic x Shadow: TOKYO MISSION.
• Match Cut: In the second trailer, the scene where Maria touches Shadow's capsule in a lab in the past is intercut with Shadow forlornly looking at a shattered pod in the present.
• Monumental Damage: Early in the trailer, Knuckles launches himself off one of the faces of Big Ben, shattering it and possibly destroying the famous clock tower. The film's first poster likewise has Sonic and Shadow running on the side of the famous Tokyo Sky Tree tower, forming a "3" out of the damage they cause to the landmark.
• Musical Nod:
  • The first trailer is set to a moody and bombastic orchestral rendition of "Green Hill Zone" mixed with "Live and Learn", the latter also being used for the title treatment teaser.
  • The second trailer's music is set to an orchestral version of the opening bars of "His World", Sonic's Leitmotif from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
• Mythology Gag: From the trailer:
  • The film's logo is based on the logo◊ of Sonic Adventure 2, which makes sense given that the film is said to be inspired by the game.
  • The logo reveal teaser features an orchestrated remix of Adventure 2's vocal theme song, "Live & Learn". The song itself is also planned to appear in the movie according to Crush 40 lead Johnny Gioeli.
  • Robotnik has been hiding out in a crab-based mecha, a reference to the recurring Crabmeat Badniks in the series.
  • At one point during the trailer, Team Sonic are bombarded with missiles by Egg Badniks at a stage show in Tokyo filled with Chao mascots, appropriately named "Chao Garden", with one of them even dressed like Cheese, Cream the Rabbit's own pet Chao. The second trailer also shows a scarlet macaw decoration designed after the parrot which was among the collectable small animals for the Chao gardens in the Adventure games.
  • Shadow is seen driving a motorcycle in the first trailer exactly as he can in his titular game. It even has a similar design. He is also seen grabbing a gun in the second trailer.
  • He's also shown in the trailer teleporting between attacks, which is a move he can do in multiple games he's playable in, like Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) or Sonic Generations.
  • Sonic leaps out of a helicopter and dives towards the ground, just as he does in his first cutscene in Adventure 2.
  • Part of the film is set in Japan, bringing the films back to the country where the franchise originated in.
  • One TV spot shows Sonic and Shadow leaping past each other in the same pose as in the intro for Adventure 2.
  • The TV spot also shows Sonic struggling to get up in front of Shadow just like in the intro of Shadow's eponymous game.
  • In the second trailer, a Japanese girl mistakes Tails for Detective Pikachu, which could be a nod to how the teaser trailer for the first movie (the one with the infamous Ugly Sonic design) was attached to the game’s film adaptation back in 2019. Tails also played a detective, complete with both him and Detective Pikachu wearing deerstalker hats.
  • The second trailer shows Gerald has scribbled his plans for the Eclipse Cannon on the walls of his prison cell just as he did in Adventure 2.
  • Shadow gets surrounded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police in the Shibuya Scramble Crossing in the second trailer, much like how Sonic got surrounded by G.U.N. soldiers in Central City in Adventure 2.
  • Knuckles is revealed to be scared of ghosts and horror genre in a TV spot, something that was shown in Adventure 2 and brought up again in the Halloween Episode of TailsTube.
• Neck Lift: In the trailer, Shadow grabs Sonic by the neck as he launches him into the air.
• Now That's Using Your Teeth!: In the second trailer, Knuckles tries to prevent the chained up Team Sonic from falling into Shadow's black hole device by biting and holding them all with a loose cable until Sonic uses a warp ring to get them out.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The first trailer suggests that Dr. Robotnik is helping out Team Sonic as he doesn't want anyone else to Take Over the World.

  Robotnik: If I can't rule the world, I might as well save it!

• Orange/Blue Contrast: As always, Sonic is represented by blue, and as seen in the logo and the trailer when the two are about to clash, Shadow's power manifests in orange-red.
• Plot-Triggering Death: The trailer shows Shadow kneeling beside Maria's dead body, as Commander Walters explains to Sonic that the black hedgehog "found only pain and loss".
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: As usual, Shadow's color scheme is primarily black and red, and while he may have sympathetic traits, the first trailer makes it clear he is not a heroic figure.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Based on his remarks in the first movie and the trailer, Ivo Robotnik clearly thought that Gerald Robotnik was dead.
• Running Gag: In the first trailer, in exchange for Robotnik's help, Sonic gives Robotnik one of his quills. Robotnik tries to lick the quill and gets electrocuted by it, which happened at least once in both the first movie and its sequel.
• Sequel Goes Foreign: The trailer shows the film will have a number of scenes set in London and Tokyo, whereas the previous films were set mostly in the United States (although the second film also had some scenes in Siberia).
• Shadow Archetype: In a literal sense. In the trailer, the GUN commander tells Sonic that he and Shadow have very similar backgrounds, but whereas Sonic found a family, Shadow only found loss. Hence, Sonic being a happy kid who started alone but found a family, compared to Shadow, who had a family, lost it, and is retaliating against the world in his grief.
• Shirtless Scene: In the trailer, Robotnik's old flight suit no longer zips up because of his new gut... So he rips Agent Stone's shirt off. Agent Stone is quite sculpted.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the first trailer, after catching his first punch, Shadow kicks Knuckles upwards, whose pose is visually similar to Vegeta's kick against Semi-Perfect Cell in the Androids Saga (also called Spirit Breaking Cannon in various Dragon Ball games).
  • Shadow at one point near the end of the trailer performs the iconic AKIRA bike slide with a motorcycle he's supercharging with his energy to keep up with Sonic's speed. Up a Building. And then uses the horizontal position the upwards-soaring bike is left in as a launch platform to slam down on a charging Sonic.
  • In the second trailer, a little girl in the Chao Garden cafe mistakes Tails for Detective Pikachu.

    Knuckles: (Laughs) He does look like a Pokémon! Pika pika!

• Spared by the Adaptation: In the games, Gerald Robotnik was executed 50 years prior to the events of Sonic Adventure 2, but here the trailer ends with him very much alive and meeting his grandson in the flesh.
• Stock Audio Clip: In the first trailer, Knuckles' yell of pain when he gets his hand twisted by Shadow is the same yell from his Heroic Second Wind from the final episode of Knuckles.
• Take That!: Tails being annoyed by the “Detective Pikachu” comparison can also been seen as jab towards it, especially since the sequel to that film which the first movie competed against, has yet to have its sequel escape Development Hell, while the Sonic movie series itself is on its third sequel.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change:
  • The "3" added to the poster logo is red to represent Shadow the Hedgehog, who makes his first film appearance as a major antagonist.
  • The logo seen in the first trailer is a direct homage to the one for Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow's original debut.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: The trailer sees Sonic and company having their first confrontation with Shadow in the Shibuya Scramble Crossing.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The first trailer has Team Sonic turning to Robotnik to take on Shadow. The second has Ivo Robotnik discussing with Gerald how they can rule humanity with Shadow’s power, and shows that both Robotnik team up with Shadow.
• Truer to the Text:
  • As seen in the trailer, after falling into a depressive state in his hideout, Robotnik has become visibly disheveled and sports an enlarged gut from overeating. After getting his hair cut, he still retains the pot belly, making him look even closer to his video game counterpart. Additionally, he also receives a new jacket that resembles the modern outfit Eggman used since Sonic Adventure later on (just with a higher collar and a little more detailed, similar to the other anthro characters' shoes).
  • In the trailer, Commander Walters now sports a uniform much closer to Abraham Tower's uniform from Shadow the Hedgehog, with diagonal blue and alternating-red-and-yellow stripes going from his lapel to his shoulder on one side.
• Weaponized Teleportation: The trailer shows Shadow fighting by teleporting behind his target, knocking them out and then teleporting to a different location. He also warps in front of Sonic after lifting him up into the sky to throw him back to the ground.
• Wham Shot: For fans of the games, the first trailer ends on a scene of an older mustached man also played by Jim Carrey, revealing that Eggman's grandfather Gerald Robotnik is alive and well in this universe.
• The Worf Effect: In the trailer, Shadow is shown easily taking out Team Sonic without much effort, to drive home how powerful he is.
• Wrestler in All of Us: In the trailer, Shadow takes Sonic out by lifting him several stories in the air, teleporting in front of him, and chokeslamming him back down to Earth.
• You Talk Too Much!: Shadow finds Sonic's extremely chatty nature off-putting in the second trailer.

  Shadow: The more you talk, the harder I want to hit you!