Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (film)

Story byBased onSonic the Hedgehog
by Sega^[a]Produced byStarringCinematographyBrandon TrostEdited byAl LeVineMusic byTom HolkenborgDistributed byParamount PicturesCountriesLanguageEnglish

Sonic the Hedgehog 3^[b] is an upcoming action-adventure comedy film based on the video game series published by Sega. It is directed by Jeff Fowler and written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, based on a story by Casey and Miller. Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Shemar Moore, and Lee Majdoub reprise their roles with Alyla Browne, Krysten Ritter, and Keanu Reeves joining the cast. In the film, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles must ally with Dr. Robotnik to defeat a new enemy, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Plans for a third Sonic the Hedgehog film were announced in February 2022 during ViacomCBS's investor event before the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, filming for animated characters began in July 2023 in Surrey, England, while filming with physical actors began in November of that year in London, with production concluding by March 2024. The film draws inspiration from the video games Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005).

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is scheduled to be theatrically released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on December 20, 2024.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails face a mysterious and powerful new adversary, Shadow the Hedgehog. The trio forms an unlikely alliance with Dr. Robotnik in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.^[4]

• Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog: An anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds.^[5]
• Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Miles "Tails" Prower: An anthropomorphic yellow-orange fox who can fly with his twin-tails.^[5]
• Idris Elba as Knuckles the Echidna: A hot-headed and serious anthropomorphic red echidna warrior with super strength.^[5]
• Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog: An anthropomorphic red-striped black hedgehog resulting from a secret government program called Project Shadow.^[6]

• Jim Carrey in a dual role as the following:
  • Dr. Ivo Robotnik, a mad scientist and Sonic's arch-nemesis who he often refers to as "Eggman".^[5]
  • Gerald Robotnik, Ivo's grandfather.^[7]
• James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, the adoptive father of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and the sheriff of Green Hills, Montana.^[5]
• Tika Sumpter as Maddie Wachowski, Tom's wife, the adoptive mother of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and the local veterinarian of Green Hills.^[5]
• Krysten Ritter as Director Rockwell^[8]
• Natasha Rothwell as Rachel, Maddie's sister.^[9]
• Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone, Robotnik's assistant.^[5]
• Tom Butler as Commander Walters, the former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who is the leader of the military organization Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.).^[5]
• Adam Pally as as Wade Whipple, a dim-witted deputy sheriff of Green Hills^[10]
• Shemar Moore as Randall Handel, Rachel's husband who is an agent for G.U.N..^[9]
• Alyla Browne as Maria Robotnik,^[11] a girl who Shadow befriends during his time in a lab.^[12]

Additionally Sofia Pernas, Cristo Fernández, James Wolk, and Jorma Taccone were cast in undisclosed roles.^[5]

In March 2020, James Marsden confirmed that he had signed on for multiple sequels to Sonic the Hedgehog (2020).^[13] In February 2022, Sega Sammy Group and Paramount Pictures had been developing a third film after Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). It was formally announced during ViacomCBS's investor event.^[14] Jeff Fowler returned as director, and Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, Toru Nakahara, and Hitoshi Okuno returned as producers.^[15] Haruki Satomi, Shuji Utsumi, Yukio Sugino, Fowler, Tommy Gormley, and Tim Miller served as executive producers.^[16] Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington returned to write the screenplay, with the former two also being credited for the story.^[16] Paul Greenberg and Oren Uziel received off-screen additional literary material credit.^[17] In addition, a spin-off television series for Paramount+, Knuckles, was developed simultaneously with the film.^[14] The film will draw inspiration from the video games Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005).^[18][19]

In April 2022, Jim Carrey–who portrays Dr. Robotnik in the films–announced that he was considering retiring from acting.^[20] With his possible retirement, Moritz and Ascher confirmed that his role as Robotnik would not be recast in any sequels if he followed through with his retirement plans. However, they remained hopeful that they could develop scripts good enough for him to continue the role.^[21] Carrey conceded, requiring that "the angels bring some sort of script that's written in gold ink that says to me that it's going to be really important for people to see" if he were to continue.^[22]

Second-unit filming began in late July 2023 for animated characters only without physical actors (due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike) in Farnham, Surrey, England.^[23] Principal photography was originally scheduled to begin on August 31, 2023, in London, England,^[24][25] but was delayed to September of that year.^[26] Production with physical actors started on November 29, 2023, and was announced with a teaser image of Shadow the Hedgehog's stand-in statue used in filming. Brandon Trost returns as cinematographer for the film.^[27][8] Luke Freeborn serves as production designer.^[8]

In February 2024, Carrey was officially confirmed to be reprising his role in the film,^[15] along with Marsden, Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Idris Elba, Lee Majdoub, and Tom Butler.^[5] Krysten Ritter, Alyla Browne, James Wolk, Sofia Pernas, Cristo Fernández, and Jorma Taccone were cast in undisclosed roles;^[5] Taccone was previously hired as an episode director for the Knuckles series.^[30] On February 16, Browne's role was revealed as Maria.^[11] Schwartz began recording for the film by the week after.^[31]

Marsden said that filming had been completed by March 14, 2024,^[32] while Fowler officially revealed that the film had wrapped production on March 29.^[33] On April 15, 2024, it was reported that Keanu Reeves had joined the cast as the voice of Shadow.^[6]

As a cost-cutting measure, the producers had an in-house animation team at Paramount work on both Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the Knuckles series.^[34] Al LeVine serves as editor.^[8] According to Ascher, the team "made an investment in the Sonic assets and [...] built them in-house," then distributed them to the several different vendors, which he noted was comparatively different from previous installments where "usually the vendor controls the assets that they rig." Owning the assets also allowed for their in-house team to work exclusively on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles, and helped the production "keep costs down and move faster."^[34] Fowler emphasized the need for visual continuity between the projects and cited good communication as being key to achieving this.^[34]

Tom Holkenborg, who composed the score for the first two Sonic films, returned to score Sonic the Hedgehog 3^[35] and had finished work by July 2024.^[36] In December 2023, Crush 40 vocalist Johnny Gioeli said there had been talks of including "Live & Learn", the theme song from Sonic Adventure 2.^[37] In February 2024, Gioeli confirmed "Live & Learn" would be included in the film.^[38]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States by Paramount Pictures on December 20, 2024, taking over the original release date of The Smurfs Movie (2025).^[39]

In April 2024 at CinemaCon, Paramount showcased first-look footage of the film, which featured a heavier Robotnik bemoaning his current state before his assistant Agent Stone informs that "they found him", and Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles fighting a silent Shadow.^[40] In July, a popcorn bucket and action figures produced by Jakks Pacific were leaked online.^[41] On August 25, the first official tease of Keanu Reeves's involvement as Shadow was posted to the film's TikTok account, which referenced the actor's mention in the first film, captioned "foreSHADOWing".^[42] Beginning at that time, images of the film's characters were projected on buildings in locations globally in promotion of the film's first trailer,^[43] which released on August 27 alongside a teaser poster.^[44] Reeves's role was considered the most prominent feature in the trailer.^[45][46] IGN observed that "Keanu Reeves is very much in Keanu Reeves mode here",^[4] and Vulture likened the actor's moody and vengeful portrayal of Shadow to a John Wick performance.^[47] Both Ash Parrish of The Verge and Paul Tassi of Forbes agreed that Reeves's voice was satisfactory, and Parrish also noted Maria's reveal, anticipating how the film would adapt her fate.^[12][45]

• List of films based on video games

• Official website
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at IMDb