Keanu Reeves in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 — Cyberpunk 2077 star gave voice to black hedgehog Shadow

The news is one line, but what a news: Keanu Reeves has suddenly joined the cast of the hotly anticipated third film about the super-fast hedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog 3 — the adaptation of the famous SEGA platformer series.

Paramount Pictures and the actor himself did not have time to properly prepare the announcement, as the information spread like wildfire — first, the news was shared by blogger John Campea (the announcement took place at the recent private presentation of CinemaCon 2024), after which there were separate confirmations from specialized publications, including The Hollywood Reporter йVariety.

. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5wdFSRYoOY

Shadow the Black Hedgehog, who represents the «dark side» — complete opposite of Sonic. The antagonist character made his debut in Sonic Adventure 2, released in June 2001 for the Dreamcast console, and immediately gained immense popularity among fans of the franchise. A month later, in July 2001, Shadow made his first appearance in comics — in the 98th issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog series by Archie Comics, which partially retells the plot of Sonic Adventure 2. In addition to the ability to travel at supersonic speeds, Shadow is able to move through time and space.

Returning to Paramount’s adaptations, Shadow appears for a few seconds in the post-credits scene of «Sonic the Hedgehog 2», so obviously, in the third film of the series, he has a no less important role than the evil Professor Robotnik, played again by the unsurpassed Jim Carrey — in 2022, the actor and comedian publicly reflected on the end of his career and hasn’t appeared in a movie since.

Movie «Sonic the Hedgehog 3» were completed last month — Jeff Fowler, who worked on the previous installments, is again directing, and the script was written by the same team of writers. Ben Schwartz (Sonic), Colleen O’Shaughnessy (Tails) and Idris Elba (Knuckles) reprise their roles in the sequel. «Sonic the Hedgehog 3» will be released in Ukraine on December 20, 2024.

The first two Sonic the Hedgehog movies were quite successful. The first part grossed $319.7 million at the global box office (budget — $85-$90 million), and the second part grossed $405.4 million (budget — $90-$110 million). And it seems that Paramount has big plans for the franchise. At least, speaking about the upcoming Sonic films, executive producer Toby Asher in an interview Paste mentioned Marvel’s Avengers movie series, which is perhaps the most profitable movie franchise.

«Knuckles», a series spinoff about Knuckles’ adventures with Idris Elba

In a month, on April 26, Paramount+ will release «Knuckles», a spinoff series about the adventures of the mighty Knuckles (voiced again by Idris Elba), set between the second and third Sonic. By the way, the pilot episode of «Knuckles» was directed by Jeff Fowler, and Tika Sumpter and Adam Pally once again voiced Maddie Wakowski and Wade Whipple.