Keanu Reeves is voicing Shadow the Hedgehog in the third Sonic movie
Keanu Reeves has reportedly joined the cast of Paramount’s next Sonic movie as Shadow, the superior hedgehog.
By Charles Pulliam-Moore, a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.
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The third Sonic movie already seemed like it was going to kick all kinds of ass by bringing Shadow the Hedgehog into the picture, but Paramount’s just upped the ante by adding one Keanu Reeves to its cast.
According to both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Keanu Reeves has been tapped to voice Shadow, the anthropomorphic hedgehog best known for his jet-powered sneakers and fondness for guns. While the studio’s yet to make an official announcement, news of Reeves’ casting comes after director Jeff Fowler teased that the next Sonic movie will be inspired by Sonic Adventure 2, the Dreamcast game that first introduced Shadow in 2001.
Shadow’s cinematic arrival was also teased at the end of the last Sonic movie, where he appeared to be cryogenically frozen at a mysterious black site. We didn’t get a chance to hear him shout “chaos control” or “this is the ultimate” then, but it feels safe to assume that he’ll do that and then some when Sonic the Hedgehog 3 premieres on December 20th.