The long-awaited trailer for Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is finally here, and fans of the franchise have left no stone unturned in uncovering the promo's details.
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00:00The long-awaited trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is finally here,
00:03and fans of the franchise have left no stone unturned in uncovering the promo's details.
00:08Early on in the trailer, we see the trio of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in some quick action shots,
00:13and one of them will certainly stand out to longtime franchise fans.
00:16In it, Knuckles appears to leap off Big Ben and glide through the air with flaming fists.
00:20It may look a bit unnatural to see an echidna capable of flying,
00:23but Sonic fans know this to be one of Knuckles' iconic powers.
00:26Knuckles' gliding move dates back to 1994's Sonic & Knuckles, the first game in which he
00:31was a playable character. It's a way for him to traverse stages while attacking enemies in midair.
00:36His levels in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were based around this mechanic,
00:40as Knuckles navigated larger, more puzzle-centric courses in search of Master Emerald Shards.
00:45While this moment will catch the eyes of Knuckle fans, it also promises something new,
00:48as there's no variant of the move in the games where Knuckles' fists are set ablaze.
00:52While Knuckles' punching moves have been known to summon explosive fire in some games,
00:56and the character even uses fiery moves like this in the previous film,
00:59these flying fire fists are a new development.
01:03Many fans correctly predicted that the introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog would
01:06bring with it one of the most tragic backstories of the Sonic franchise.
01:09As revealed in Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow is a creation of the military organization
01:14Guns Project Shadow, an experiment by Gerald Robotnik to create the Ultimate Lifeform.
01:18Shadow became close with Gerald's granddaughter Maria, but she was unfortunately shot dead while
01:22trying to help Shadow escape from the Space Colony Ark. Despite this storyline being quite dark,
01:27fans were nonetheless excited to see Maria briefly appear in the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
01:32She's portrayed by Alila Brown, whom you might recognize from having played a young
01:35Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa, a Mad Max saga. Given the presence of Gun in the previous film,
01:40as well as Project Shadow being referenced in its mid-credits scene, it seems that Sonic
01:44the Hedgehog 3 is setting up to keep Shadow's backstory the same in the new film.
01:49"'Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."
01:52There was a lot of speculation regarding who would be cast to play Gerald Robotnik,
01:56the grandfather of Jim Carrey's Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
02:00Some names thrown out there included Christopher Lloyd, Willem Dafoe, and J.K. Simmons,
02:04but the end result is probably the best choice that could have been made.
02:07In the trailer, Carrey's Robotnik wanders through an abandoned lab before reuniting
02:11with his grandfather, who's played by Jim Carrey himself. Design-wise, this isn't a huge departure
02:16from the look of Gerald Robotnik in the games. The character has often been depicted as an older,
02:20grayer version of Dr. Eggman, which Carrey seems to have adopted for this double role.
02:24What's more surprising is that it's a big diversion from the character's in-game fate,
02:28in that Gerald went insane after the death of Maria and vowed revenge on humanity before he
02:32was ultimately imprisoned and executed. It's pretty surprising to see Carrey in the film at all,
02:37considering the actor said he'd be retiring from acting during press for Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
02:42However, it seems that not even the promise of a peaceful retirement can keep the actor
02:45away from a fun role — or a fun couple of roles, for that matter.
02:49Getting a first look at Shadow the Hedgehog in action has a lot of fans of the video game
02:53franchise excited to see the character's iconic moves on the big screen. However,
02:57only eagle-eyed Sonic fans will have noticed one brief moment in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer,
03:01where the character does his signature skate technique as he runs across water,
03:05in a style very reminiscent of the character's movements in the games.
03:08While Sonic has been seen running over water for brief periods of time in the past,
03:12Shadow's method of traversing a body of water appears much more graceful. However,
03:16neither Shadow nor Sonic have been known to walk on water for extended periods of time,
03:20with large bodies of water even being hazards for Sonic and his friends.
03:23If this trailer is to be believed, Shadow's ability to skate across water with no trouble
03:28signifies that this iteration of the character is much stronger in ways fans of Sonic have yet to
03:32see. This isn't the only detail from the trailer where Shadow's shoes are in focus. During one
03:36confrontation with Sonic, Shadow lifts the Hedgehog into the air using his air shoes,
03:40which the character has frequently used to hover in midair and fly throughout the game series.
03:45"'Project Shadow' is far beyond anything we've ever encountered."
03:49Another blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment from the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer doesn't reference
03:53the Sonic franchise at all, but instead pays homage to one of the most iconic moments in anime
03:57history. During the chase sequence where Shadow is riding a motorcycle, he slides while turning
04:01his vehicle in a very particular fashion. The move seems to be directly taken from the 1988
04:06animated Japanese film Akira, in which the camera is framed so that the film's protagonist, Kaneda,
04:11smoothly rides in from below frame and stops at the top of it as sparks emanate from his motorcycle.
04:16Referencing the move isn't exactly a unique Easter egg in film history,
04:19as countless other films and animated shows have imitated it. What makes this one particularly
04:24special is that Shadow voice actor Keanu Reeves almost played Kaneda in a live-action Hollywood
04:28remake of Akira. This Easter egg is also not exactly unique in terms of the Sonic the Hedgehog
04:33film franchise, given that the previous films have referenced pop culture quite a lot.
04:37Having Shadow reenact this small detail from Akira also helps pay tribute to the Sonic franchise's
04:42Japanese origins, given that the film franchise has thus far been very catered to Western audiences.
04:47"'Howdy, partner!"
04:49Hopefully, Shadow's Akira slide looks just as good on the big screen as it does in this trailer,
04:53as many fans will be excited to see it for themselves when the film releases.
04:57Much of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is clearly going to revolve around fully introducing Shadow the
05:01Hedgehog to the Sonic movie universe, even though the ending of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 first teases
05:06his debut. So it stands to reason that the film is going to draw heavily from the video game where
05:10Shadow originated, Sonic Adventure 2. Near the end of the trailer, when Sonic and Shadow clash,
05:16they spin together into the graphic that sits behind the movie's title. Looking like a classic
05:20Sonic spin dash with a black and orange bottom half, it bears more than a slight resemblance
05:24to the graphic that it's formed around from the Sonic Adventure 2 title image.
05:28Lest there be any doubt that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is directly inspired by Sonic Adventure 2,
05:32the connection between the two is going to be made obvious right from the former's title screen.
05:38It's clear that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is going pretty hard on referencing not just Sonic Adventure
05:422, but its predecessor as well. The first core Sonic game to take the hedgehog into polygonal,
05:47fully 3D worlds, Sonic Adventure represented a new era for the franchise's gameplay and
05:51characters alike. Among the new allies that joined Sonic in the first game were the Chao.
05:56These cute little creatures mostly just served as the basis for a minigame at first, but would
06:00soon become an ever-present feature in future games, and almost every other form of Sonic,
06:04except for the movies. However, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is going to rectify that.
06:08At one point in the trailer, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are attacked by missiles while
06:12enjoying a stage show of some kind. That show features what look to be life-size animatronic
06:17Chao singing and dancing on stage. It's unclear whether we'll see actual Chao in the movie,
06:21or if their appearance will consist entirely of the single scene,
06:24but the creatures are still primed for their big-screen debut either way.
06:28Sonic games went through a rough patch in the 2000s after the release of Sonic Adventure 2,
06:33struggling not only with the third dimension, but also just having a general identity crisis.
06:37Thanks in part to the huge success of the Grand Theft Auto series, the mid-2000s saw games as a
06:42whole get especially edgy and adult, and numerous franchises tried to fit into that trend with mixed
06:46results.
06:47"...Who am I? And why can't I remember anything?"
06:50For the Sonic franchise, that manifested as Shadow's first, and thus far only,
06:54true solo game outing, 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog. Featuring the titular character
06:59delivering mild expletives and using guns, Shadow the Hedgehog earned a rare T for Teen
07:03rating for a Sonic franchise game. Critical reception was mixed, and fans weren't entirely
07:08sold on the focus on third-person shooting, but the game did sell well. There's no denying that
07:12the game is an important one for Shadow and his story, and there are various indications
07:16that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is also going to draw from various elements of Shadow the Hedgehog.
07:20For example, the motorcycle Shadow rides in the trailer was a concept first introduced
07:24in Shadow the Hedgehog.
07:26Elements from the Sonic Adventure games were already present in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies
07:30prior to the upcoming third installment. A notable example of this is the Guardian
07:34Units of Nations, or GUN, a task force that was put together for battling the kinds of
07:39threats that traditional law enforcement and military organizations proved unequipped to
07:43handle. GUN made its live-action film debut in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but it has been a
07:47part of Sonic media since, you guessed it, Sonic Adventure 2. There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it
07:52moment in the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 that sees James Marsden's Tom Wachowski lying
07:57on the floor and screaming Sonic's name while wearing a GUN uniform. Whether he has joined
08:01the organization or was just posing as a GUN agent in some sort of undercover infiltration
08:05is unclear, but both seem equally plausible. Either way, making a point to show Tom in a
08:10GUN uniform was no doubt meant to get the gears of fan speculation turning.
08:15Given that it was built by Gerald Robotnik and was where Shadow was created, it was perhaps a
08:19foregone conclusion that we'd see the Space Colony Ark show up in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
08:24Since its debut in Sonic Adventure 2, the Ark has not only played a story role in numerous
08:28Sonic games, it has also served as a popular locale in which to set levels. So it's cool
08:33to see that it's going to figure heavily in the third live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film.
08:37There wasn't enough context in the scenes in the trailer that show Shadow escaping from the
08:41machinery that birthed him to definitively place the action within the Ark, with the
08:44Ark being present in the movie as cemented later in the trailer when it's shown rising from a river.
08:49The Ark is shown in several more quick shots in the trailer,
08:52including a moment that sees a clearly scared Tails flying away from it.
08:56There's little doubt that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is going to have at least two epic action climaxes,
09:01one being a physical battle with Shadow himself and the other consisting of the Ark needing to
09:05be stopped. Thus far, the Sonic the Hedgehog movies have introduced Sonic's main villains
09:10in the same order they debuted in the games, first Robotnik, then Knuckles, and now Shadow.
09:15However, one major Sonic villain that predates both Shadow and Knuckles has been skipped over.
09:19That character is Metal Sonic, who debuted in 1993's Sonic CD, which was released for
09:24Sega's ill-fated Sega CD platform. Created by Robotnik, Metal Sonic has proven to be
09:29a formidable adversary to Sonic. He has matched and even surpassed Sonic's speed on occasion,
09:34made possible through a power gem that Robotnik installed in him.
09:37While this is a bit more speculative than most of the other entries in this list,
09:41it is possible that Robotnik could create a Metal Sonic in the film universe via one
09:45of Sonic's quills. This is backed up by a small moment in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer.
09:50As part of the deal for Robotnik to help Sonic and friends take on Shadow,
09:53the scientist seems to demand one of Sonic's quills.
09:56We need your help.
09:58On one condition.
10:00It's possible that he asked for a quill for a future creation, and Metal Sonic would make
10:03an ideal big bad for a fourth Sonic movie. Not to mention the time travel themes of Sonic CD
10:08would in turn be a fun gimmick to build the sequel around.