A “whoa” seems fully appropriate here: Keanu Reeves, star of the John Wick franchise and many more of our favorite movies (he’s also a musician, a comic book writer, a meme inspiration, and is generally seeming to be living the dream), will voice Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Speculation about who will play the fan-favorite character in the latest entry in the popular video game-adapted series has been running high, and now the Hollywood Reporter cites “multiple sources” (and hat-tips the John Campea Show) confirming it’ll be Reeves. The character was teased in the mid-credits of Sonic 2, and the movie—due December 20—will take place after the events of Sonic 2 as well as the upcoming Knuckles spin-off series for Paramount+ (which hits the streamer next week, on April 26).
At last week’s CinemaCon, Paramount’s presentation shared a bit more about the threequel; THR notes that it included “the revelation that Dr. Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey, was depressed and out of shape after the events of Sonic 2, but gets his groove back thanks to creating Shadow the Hedgehog, a character first introduced in the video games in 2001’s Sonic Adventure 2. The character is in many ways the anti-Sonic, dark and edgy while mirroring the hero’s powers.”
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will reunite Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Knuckles (Idris Elba), and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey)—as well as Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, of course, and James Marsden and Tika Sumpter as Sonic’s adoptive parents.
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