Keanu Reeves' Shadow is just too powerful in new Sonic The Hedgehog 3 trailer

Over the past year and change, it’s felt a bit like someone bashed their head into a question mark box and released dozens of glittery video game adaptations into the world. Just this year, we’ve had the (terrible) Borderlands movie and the (very good) Fallout series on Prime Video. Those follow last year’s Five Nights At Freddy’s and The Last Of Us, which is gearing up for its second season now. But even with all those adaptations, there’s been one curious oversight. Excepting The Super Mario Bros. Movie, very few of them have been aimed at kids. With Sonic The Hedgehog 3, Sega and Paramount are sending their fastest, bluest soldier to remind families that there is, in fact, a series out there for them.

In his third outing, the loveable hedgehog has to contend with a powerful new foe: Shadow, a hedgehog that “found only pain” where Sonic “found family and friends.” He’s got a little bit of a Dark Spider-Man thing going on, and he’s voiced by Keanu Reeves, which is an extra treat.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 also sees the return of Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Miles “Tails” Prower, and Idris Elba as Knuckles, along with live-action actors Jim Carrey (Dr. Robotnik), James Marsden (Tom Wachowski), Tika Sumpter (Maddie Wachowski), and Lee Majdoub (Agent Stone). Your guess as to how they landed this insane cast is as good as ours. 

So, can Sonic keep up with his contemporaries? In his review of 2022’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for The A.V. Club, Todd Gilchrist wrote, “Where the first film was an obnoxious mess that didn’t define the rules of its own world(s) well enough to obey them, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 has quite possibly mapped out too much mythology too quickly, aggressively moving forward, whether audiences are ready to do so or not.” We’ll see if the threequel can finally chart a perfect pace when it sprints into theaters December 20.