‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3' Cast Keanu Reeves As Its Shadow
‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3' Cast Keanu Reeves As Its Shadow
Sonic gets to face off against the man he called a national treasure in the threequel releasing December 20
Best believe they punched this one out. After the character’s in-stasis debut just over 2 years ago in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and fan casting-based speculation lasting pretty much as long, Keanu Reeves has been cast as Shadow the Hedgehog in this year’s third film, set for release on December 20.
This comes mere days after Paramount Pictures’s CinemaCon presentation, featuring first-look footage that had Dr. Robotnik complete his transformation to game accuracy. What was shown of Shadow featured no speaking from the character, of course otherwise the news would’ve broken right then. As details slowly trickle out about the film, it’s become very clear that the film is adapting Shadow’s debut appearance, 2001’s Sonic Adventure 2. The character is Sonic’s dark, edgy antihero counterpart, created by Ivo Robotnik’s grandfather Gerald through experimental genetic engineering in pursuit of curing his granddaughter Maria’s terminal illness. Placed in suspended animation, he fails to protect her from murder by the military. Initially seeking revenge, his mission instead becomes to protect the world in her memory, keeping a promise he made to her.
As far as Reeves, even Sonic himself knows his storied filmography, calling him a national treasure as he watches Reeves’s 1994 film Speed from outside the Wachowskis’ window before he’s discovered by them later in the first film. The ultimate foreshadowing? Maybe. Having already starred in the first two Bill & Ted movies and Point Break, he would go on to star in four Matrix films, Constantine, four John Wick films and an upcoming spinoff, a third Bill & Ted film Face the Music and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. As far as voice acting, he hasn’t done much, but it does include the first season of the Bill & Ted animated series, reprising as Neo for The Animatrix segment “Kid’s Story”, and Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4. In addition to Wick’s supporting role in Ballerina, Reeves has Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut Good Fortune, in which he plays a guardian angel.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 made $404 million globally, surpassing the $319 million its 2020 starter made. Director Jeff Fowler returns for this installment having done both of the previous, and Reeves joins a breathtaking cast that includes Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Jim Carrey as Ivo Robotnik, Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone, Idris Elba as Knuckles, whose 6-episode spinoff event series premieres next Thursday on Paramount+, Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Tails, Tom Butler as Commander Walters, James Marsden and Tika Sumpter as Sonic’s adoptive parents, the aforementioned Tom and Maddie Wachowski. Fellow newcomers include Alyla Browne as Maria Robotnik (which she had quickly confirmed), Jessica Jones’s Krysten Ritter, Happy Face’s James Wolk, Sofia Pernas, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ Cristo Fernández, and The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is set to be released in theaters on December 20, 2024.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, IGN