alliance with Doctor Robotnik, who is facing his own troubles after the resurfacing of his grandfather Gerald. The film stars Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba, and new cast addition Keanu Reeves in the role of Shadow.
The film is directed by Jeff Fowler, who previously worked on the last two entries in the live-action franchise. Fowler has a long history with the Sonic IP, even working on CGI for the 2005 Shadow the Hedgehog video game, as well as the recent Knuckles series. The full introduction to Shadow has been highly anticipated by fans since the antagonist was first introduced during the credits of Sonic 2, with the character set up to be the fiercest danger the heroes have ever faced.
Where To Watch Sonic The Hedgehog 3: Showtimes & Streaming Status
Sonic's live-action franchise continues with Shadow's debut. Here's where to watch Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in theaters, on streaming, and on digital.
Screen Rant interviewed Jeff Fowler to discuss introducing Shadow's backstory in Sonic 3, balancing a new story with video game lore, and what characters could appear in future franchise entries.
Shadow Was Jeff Fowler's "Top Priority" In Sonic 3
Introducing A New Villain & Balancing Existing Story With Fresh Ideas
Screen Rant: Jeff, Sonic 3 is here. It is so much fun. Now, obviously, all eyes are on the introduction of Shadow and Gerald in this film, but there's a number of iconic game elements. How did you go about balancing adapting the stories from the games with an original enough approach to keep things unpredictable?
Jeff Fowler: That's a great question. That really is the challenge every time out with these films, because there's so many stories, so many characters that the fans love and have been dying to see on the big screen. We certainly worked our way backwards from Shadow - Shadow got the top priority, we took that so seriously. Introducing him, his backstory that is so beloved by fans, and just wanting to work so hard to get that right and to really just honor what it is that fans love.
But then it becomes, once we kind of nail some of those really key story elements, what else can we honor? Like The Chao, these characters - we're in Tokyo, we know we can take advantage of this culture that really does celebrate anime and animated characters. And of course, if there's going to be a Chao-themed cafe, a restaurant, it's going to be in Tokyo. Once we had that idea, just watching the crew run with it and build out those ideas and craft this whole Chao-themed restaurant was so much fun.
Fowler Chooses His Post-Credits Reveals Carefully
How New Characters Are Considered & The Franchise's Future
Let's break down that Super Sonic and Super Shadow fight against Dark. So much of the movie was set up for Shadow essentially wanting to help kind of wipe out the world. What was it like creating a moment to set up his shift into being an anti-hero? And how much did you take from Adventures 2 levels for inspiration in how that played out?
Jeff Fowler: I mean, we're always looking to the sources for inspiration, and visually, just whatever we can do to excite the fans. Every aspect of Shadow is sort of the backstory, his arcs, his turns. It was something that could be its own movie, so having to fit it inside a Sonic movie, that was the real trick, so obviously, we really worked hard on the concepting of those ideas.
Shadow and Maria's relationship, how do we tell a really powerful emotional story, but it has to fit in a certain box because it's a big movie? There's a lot of characters. We've got a new Robotnik character running around, and we want to explore the family angle from Robotnik's POV. So it's all these great story threads and how to balance and thread them, and it was an exciting challenge.
Any Sonic fan knows that there is a post-credits scene, but there's two post-credits scenes, so stay in your seat, watch it till the end. You'll get a second post credit scene. I want to talk about those for a second - how is the future of the franchise looking, and have there been talks of Sonic 4 already in the works or anything like that?
Jeff Fowler: There are so many great characters. Sonic's been around for over 30 years, we love working our way down the list, and it's fun to watch the fans online speculate. Everyone's got their favorites; on our side, everyone's got their favorites. It's fun to make the debate, and the story ideas, it's a package deal.
We would never introduce characters at the end of one of these films that we weren't already excited about where they could take the story, because that's really what determines what characters get chosen. It's like, "What would be new? What would be interesting? What would be a fun direction to take our world?" So, when those characters, like Shadow being introduced at the end of Sonic 2, we knew that he was going to be such an exciting character and was really going to shake things up in the movies - the choice was clear.
More About Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog returns to the big screen this holiday season in his most thrilling adventure yet. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.
Check out our other Sonic the Hedgehog 3 interviews here:
- Ben Schwartz
- Jim Carrey
- James Marsden & Tika Sumpter
- Colleen O'Shaughnessey & Krysten Ritter
- Lee Majdoub
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is in theaters December 20.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
- Release Date
- December 20, 2024
- Runtime
- 110 minutes
- Director
- Jeff Fowler
Cast
Sonic (voice)
Dr. Robotnik / Gerald Robotnik
WHERE TO WATCH
- Writers
- Josh Miller, Patrick Casey, John Whittington
- Franchise(s)
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Main Genre
- Adventure
- Studio(s)
- Sega Sammy Group, Original Film, Marza Animation Planet, Blur Studio
- Distributor(s)
- Paramount Pictures
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