New Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie trailer reveals first look at Keanu Reeves' Shadow, and I think it's an adventurously great fit (2024)

It's been a long time coming, but the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has finally raced online and confirmed one of its biggest rumors: Keanu Reeves is voicing its villain, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Released today (August 27), the first teaser for one of 2024's final new movies goes hard and fast as Paramount Pictures begins to ramp up its marketing campaign for the highly anticipated sequel. And hey, what better way to increase the hype than by revealing beloved actor Keanu Reeves is lending his instantly recognizable voice to Shadow, one of Sonic's most notable adversaries.

The teaser is, by design, a pretty hefty one – indeed, it clocks in at almost three minutes. Ordinarily, such a runtime leads to a trailer basically revealing a film's entire plot, but it seems Sonic 3's first-look is holding back some elements of its story until it lands in theaters worldwide.

That said, the trailer doesn't withhold every secret. Yes, we expected Shadow to appear in Sonic's latest live-action-animated hybrid film – he was teased in Sonic 2's post-credits scene, after all – but I didn't expect to hear Reeves utter any words as the laboratory-created anthropomorphic hedgehog until I took my seat at my screening. That would've preserved one mystery, but maybe Paramount (in conjunction with Sega, Sonic the Hedgehog's creator) felt it necessary to include Reeves' voiceover work, especially with his involvement leaking months prior to the trailer's unveiling. Regardless, Reeves feels like an adventurously great fit for Shadow and, following similar voice work he's conducted on Toy Story 4 and Cyberpunk 2077, recording lines for an animated project won't have been foreign to him.

Reeves' involvement isn't the only thing that Sonic 3's first teaser reveals. Before I get onto that, however, here's a brief story synopsis that reveals a bit more about the movie: "Sonic the Hedgehog returns to the big screen this holiday season in his most thrilling adventure yet. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet."

So, what's the unexpected partnership that the plot brief teases? As the trailer establishes, Team Sonic will be forced to ally themselves with none other than Doctor Eggman, aka Sonic's iconic adversary in his videogame franchise and villain of the first two films. That means Jim Carrey is back to play the mad scientist once more, despite his insinuation that he was retiring from acting after Sonic 2's release in early 2022. Clearly, Team Sonic need all the help they can get to stop a seemingly grief-stricken Shadow from threatening Earth's very existence.

Jeff Fowler, who directed the first two Sonic movies, is back in the director's chair for this one. Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, Adam Pally, and Lee Majdoub join Carrey on the returning cast roster. Alyla Browne and Krysten Ritter also accompany Reeves on the newcomer casting front.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is set to land in cinemas worldwide on December 21, and there's plenty of blue blur-themed content to keep you occupied until then. The previous films are both available on Paramount Plus, aka one of the best streaming services, right now. The franchise's first TV spin-off, Knuckles, was also released on the same platform earlier this year, with the series hitting hard to become the streamer's most-watched TV Original to date.

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