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What the Sonic Adventure 2 game can tell you about the Sonic 3 movie
It’s early days but Sonic The Hedgehog 3 could be a darker experience compared to the first two movies (pic: Paramount Pictures and Sega of A)
If you already know about ‘that’ cameo from Sonic 2 what can the video games tell you about the future of the Sonic movie universe?
While not the most faithful of video game-to-movie adaptations, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is more loyal to its source material compared to the first movie. Aside from the additions of Tails and Knuckles, there is more familiar iconography and the story is based on the lore of the games.
This is likely to continue based on the sequel’s post credits scene, which not only confirms another new addition to the movie franchise but also gives away which Sonic game will be the main inspiration.
Although a Sonic The Hedgehog 3 movie has been confirmed, there are zero official details and, since we’ll now be going deep into spoiler territory, it’s advised you stop reading now if you haven’t seen Sonic 2. If you have or don’t care about spoilers, let’s get into it…
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 post credits scene explained – who is Shadow the Hedgehog?
Yes, Shadow the Hedgehog makes a last minute cameo. Given his popularity, it only makes sense for him to feature in the movies. For anyone less familiar with the character, let’s run through his backstory from the games (primarily Sonic Adventure 2).
While it’d be easy to assume that he’s Sonic’s evil brother/clone, Shadow’s origins are far more complex. He’s actually the result of a military-funded science experiment titled Project Shadow and, upon his creation, he was dubbed the ultimate life form.
The goal of Project Shadow was to create immortality and it succeeded with Shadow. His creator, Professor Gerald Robotnik (the grandfather of series villain Robotnik/Eggman), had an ulterior motive, however: to cure his terminally ill granddaughter, Maria.
Shadow, Maria, and Gerald all lived aboard the space colony ARK, alongside other researchers and some regular civilians. Shadow and Maria developed a close, familial friendship, one which ended in tragedy when the military decided to shut down the project, fearing how dangerous Gerald’s experiments had become.
Soldiers of G.U.N. (Guardian Units of Nations) stormed the ARK, evacuating civilians, capturing Gerald and killing the other researchers. Maria helped Shadow escape by placing him in an escape pod that shot him down to Earth, but she was shot and killed in the process. (Yes, this is all from a game about a hedgehog that runs really first.)
Shadow was found and brought to an incarcerated Gerald. Gerald, having gone mad with grief over Maria’s death, instead plotted to destroy all of humanity. The military decided that Project Shadow was too dangerous to continue, locked Shadow in suspended animation and executed Gerald.
Shadow was meant to die in his debut game but overwhelming popularity brought him back (pic: Sega)
This all serves as the backstory for Sonic Adventure 2, which came out on the Dreamcast in 2001. Dr Eggman, having found out about Shadow from his grandfather’s diary, released Shadow and enlisted his help to conquer the planet.
However, Shadow deceived the doctor and used him to pull off Gerald’s plan: to rig the space colony ARK to drop out of orbit and crash into the Earth with enough force to wipe out all life.
It’s not until the very end of the game when Shadow, with some assistance, remembers Maria’s final request. Before she died, she asked Shadow to protect the Earth and, realising his mistake, Shadow teamed up with Sonic to prevent the ARK from crashing, seemingly at the cost of his own life.
Thanks to his popularity, he was found alive and well, albeit with amnesia, but he’s since recovered his memories and now serves as an anti-hero, occasionally assisting Sonic and friends when he’s not butting heads with them.
Since Sonic Adventure 2 is one of the more story heavy games in the series it’s easy to assume that Sonic The Hedgehog 3 will simply adapt that game’s plot. Especially as the movie makers already said they wouldn’t be adapting each game in order, i.e. whatever the next film is it won’t be based on the Sonic 3 game.
That being said, fans shouldn’t expect everything to play out exactly the same.
Shadow pic.twitter.com/IaPGOQR79Y
— Pokewood Theater (@pokewoodtheater) March 31, 2022
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 – what will the plot be?
Despite what little info we have on the movies’ take on Shadow, there are already key differences compared to the games. For starters, while Shadow appears to have been created over 50 years ago (the same time frame as the games), G.U.N. didn’t exist back then and was only formed following the events of the first Sonic movie.
Secondly, whereas the games see Sonic and his cartoon animal friends co-exist alongside humans, the movies established that the likes of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles live in a separate world.
As such, Shadow’s presence on Earth raises a lot of questions. Is he a native from Sonic’s world that arrived on Earth and was captured? Or did his creators visit Sonic’s world and were inspired to make Shadow? There does appear to be an attempt to make Sonic’s world and Earth more intrinsically connected than first implied, as evidenced by the fact that the Master Emerald was hidden on Earth.
We don’t even know if Gerald and Maria exist in the movies’ continuity, although the fact that Robotnik had access to the file might suggest that to be the case. Except Robotnik claims to be an orphan and his early interactions with Sonic in the first movie suggest he was never familiar with Shadow or aware of his existence.
Given Robotnik’s absence at the end of Sonic 2 and Jim Carrey’s retirement, he may not even be involved with the third movie, leaving Shadow as the sole antagonist.
Shadow’s so edgy that Sega gave him guns in his own game in 2005 (pic: Sega)
It’s entirely possible that most of Shadow’s backstory won’t be kept for the movie, so fans should mentally prepare themselves for changes. Although that’s to be expected after two of these movies.
Hopefully, Maria will still play an integral role. Not just for the sake of being faithful to the games but because, whether intentionally or not, the movies have turned Sonic into a perfect parallel for Shadow.
Like Shadow, Sonic has formed a close bond with humans, Tom and Maddie, who are effectively his parents. There’s a dynamic there that could potentially be explored depending on how the movie adapts Shadow and Maria.
Perhaps Shadow mistakenly believes Maria assisted in his capture and feels betrayed, motivating his desire to wipe out humanity? So, he attempts to convince Sonic that Tom and Maddie will betray or abandon him, planting a seed of doubt in Sonic’s mind.
Or he simply despises humans for Maria’s death and actively attacks Tom and Maddie, which could certainly raise the stakes on a personal level. While Robotnik had no foibles and was dangerous, his hammy personality meant he was more entertaining than threatening. Shadow would be very different and what better way to demonstrate that than harming Sonic’s surrogate family?
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Although it’s fun to speculate, it’s far too early to tell what the movie will do with Shadow. At the very least, the first sequel has already demonstrated that, even if it makes some changes here and there, it respects the Sonic characters enough to provide faithful interpretations.
Shadow’s popularity means he’ll likely be handled with kid gloves, so as not to upset his most dedicated fans. So, while we can expect some edgelord attitude from Sonic’s dark doppelganger, he will hopefully also possess the emotional depth and complexity that his oldest fans know and love.
Let’s just pray they don’t give him guns this time.
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