Whether you realize it or not, Sonic The Hedgehog is doing better than ever across virtually all media. Seriously, Sonic had been “hanging” by various threads over the years, but ever since 2020, things have started to come together. He’s had two well-received video games in both the 2D and 3D space, he has a hit show on Netflix that fans adore, and then, there are the live-action movies. These films helped set the tone for future video game adaptations and showed that they aren’t all bad when you put the effort in, and Sonic The Hedgehog 3 will hopefully continue that.
After the success of the first two movies at the box office, it was inevitable that Sonic The Hedgehog 3 would happen, and sure enough, it got greenlit rather quickly. The only “tease” we had for the third movie was a clip showing off a stasis tube containing Shadow The Hedgehog. Today, the movie’s official Twitter handle showed off a special movie still featuring the movie title, release date, and a look at Shadow’s shoes.
Any fan of Shadow knows why the shoes are so important. They are a special kind of rocket shoe that helps Shadow race to incredible speeds, even matching those of Sonic. Plus, they’re just a dope design, and the movie still highlights that they put great detail into those shoes. You can see the inhibitor rings on his wrists if you look a bit. These are what keep Shadow’s power in check unless he willingly takes them off. Without them, well, things would be bad for anything he wants to hit.
Shadow’s backstory will undoubtedly be a part of the third movie’s plot, and it’ll be curious as to what is portrayed. Traditionally, he was created by Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather to Dr. Eggman. He was meant to be the “ultimate lifeform” and even had alien DNA to help make him that way. However, the ultimate goal was to cure Gerald’s granddaughter, Maria.
Things got out of hand, and Shadow had his memory wiped and was put in stasis until years later when he was released onto an unsuspecting world.
Shadow isn’t a villain, but he’s not a hero, either. He’s more of an anti-hero, so seeing how he’s portrayed in the movie will be curious. Just as important is who he’ll be voiced by. They brought in Idris Elba to be Knuckles, and many are hoping that someone like Keanu Reeves will be Shadow. We’ll find out soon enough as the movie comes out in December 2024.