Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 2024 action-adventure comedy film based on the video game series published by Sega. It was directed by Jeff Fowler and written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, based on a story by Casey and Miller. Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, and Idris Elba reprise their roles, with Krysten Ritter and Keanu Reeves joining the cast. In the film, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles face a new enemy, Shadow the Hedgehog, who allies with the mad scientists Ivo and Gerald Robotnik in pursuit of revenge against humanity.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was announced in February 2022 during ViacomCBS's investor event before the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). Due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, filming for animated characters began in July 2023 in Surrey, England, and filming with actors began that November in London. Production ended by March 2024. The plot draws elements from the video games Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005). Reeves was cast due to the parallels between his performance in the John Wick films and Fowler's vision for Shadow.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 premiered at the Empire Leicester Square in London on December 10, 2024, and was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on December 20. It received positive reviews, with praise for Carrey and Reeves' performances, and has grossed $62 million worldwide on a budget of $122 million. A fourth film is in development.

In 1974, a meteorite containing Shadow the Hedgehog lands in Oklahoma and is seized by the Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.). Shadow's power is used for various experiments headed by Gerald Robotnik at a G.U.N. facility. Shadow develops a close friendship with Maria, Gerald's granddaughter. One night, as Gerald, Maria, and Shadow try to escape the facility to prevent Shadow from being taken away, a G.U.N. agent accidentally kills Maria with an explosion. Gerald is imprisoned and Shadow is placed in suspended animation.

Fifty years later, off the coast of Japan, a G.U.N. prison facility's systems are hacked, unleashing a vengeful Shadow. In Green Hills, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are celebrating the anniversary of Sonic's arrival on Earth with their adoptive parents Tom and Maddie Wachowski. G.U.N. Director Rockwell arrives and recruits Sonic, Tails and Knuckles to stop Shadow, who is causing chaos in Tokyo. Shadow overpowers the three and escapes.

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles meet with G.U.N. Commander Walters, who informs them about Shadow's past. Suddenly, Doctor Ivo Robotnik's drones attack and fatally wound Walters; before he dies, Walters gives Sonic a digital keycard and warns him to keep it safe. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles decide to find Shadow without G.U.N.'s help; Rockwell discovers Walters' body and, believing the three stole the keycard, turns against them. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles encounter Ivo's assistant, Agent Stone, who reveals that Ivo did not send the drones; they form an uneasy alliance with Ivo and track the drones to the abandoned G.U.N. facility.

Shadow captures Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, while Ivo meets Gerald, his estranged grandfather, who activated the drones to lure him. He explains that there are two keycards needed to activate the Eclipse Cannon, an orbital laser he designed that can target any location on Earth. Gerald intends to use it to destroy G.U.N.'s headquarters in London. Ivo betrays Sonic and joins Gerald. Shadow takes the keycard from Tails and activates a black hole to destroy the base.

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles escape using a ring portal and recruit Tom and Maddie to steal the other keycard from G.U.N.'s headquarters. During the mission, Shadow gravely wounds Tom, thinking he is Walters, and obtains the second keycard, allowing him and the Robotniks to launch the Eclipse Cannon. Furious that Shadow nearly killed Tom, Sonic abandons Tails and Knuckles, steals the Master Emerald, and transforms into Super Sonic using the seven Chaos Emeralds contained within. Sonic rushes to the Eclipse Cannon and confronts Shadow, who absorbs the Chaos Emeralds' energy to become Super Shadow. Sonic overpowers Shadow, but relents upon realizing that he has been consumed by revenge and spares him. Sonic tells Shadow about the loss of his guardian Longclaw and that their love for the people they have lost is more important than revenge. Touched, Shadow makes peace with Sonic and agrees to help stop the Eclipse Cannon.

Gerald reveals he intends to use the Eclipse Cannon to destroy Earth as revenge for Maria's death. Ivo prefers to conquer Earth rather than destroy it, and the two fight. Tails and Knuckles arrive, and the three knock Gerald into an energy field, killing him. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Ivo, and Shadow redirect the cannon away from Earth. When its core begins to melt down, Ivo and Shadow sacrifice themselves to move the Eclipse Cannon out of Earth's range before it explodes. Sonic reconciles with Tails and Knuckles while Tom recovers from his injuries.

During a race with Tails and Knuckles, Sonic is attacked by a group of Metal Sonic robots, but is saved by Amy Rose. Shadow is also revealed to have survived.

• Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog: An anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds, and the leader of Team Sonic. When Sonic wields the Chaos Emeralds, he can transform into Super Sonic.
• Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog: An anthropomorphic red-striped black hedgehog that was part of a secret government program called Project Shadow. He has lived through tragedy and seeks revenge. Fowler said once they first met, he realized Reeves "very clearly had gone and done his homework", and that he desired to create a "fan-faithful" rendition of the character.
• Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Miles "Tails" Prower: An intelligent anthropomorphic yellow-orange fox who can fly with his twin-tails and creates gadgets that can alter appearances and disable security.
• Idris Elba as Knuckles the Echidna: A hot-headed and arrogant anthropomorphic red echidna warrior with super strength and the Flames of Disaster, a technique which allows his fists to burst into flames.

• Jim Carrey as:
  • Dr. Ivo Robotnik, a mad scientist and Sonic's arch-nemesis whom he often refers to as "Eggman".
  • Professor Gerald Robotnik, Ivo's grandfather and the head of Project Shadow. Carrey said an intrinsic difference between Gerald and Ivo was that Gerald was from an older, tougher generation, describing him as tough as "the rock that he crawled out from under".
• James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, the adoptive father of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and the sheriff of Green Hills, Montana.
• Tika Sumpter as Maddie Wachowski, Tom's wife, the adoptive mother of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and the local veterinarian of Green Hills.
• Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone, Ivo Robotnik's assistant.
• Krysten Ritter as Director Rockwell, a high-ranking officer of the military organization Guardian Units of Nations (GUN).
• Natasha Rothwell as Rachel, Maddie's sister whom Maddie disguises as to infiltrate GUN headquarters.
• Shemar Moore as Randall Handel, a G.U.N. agent and Rachel's husband, whom Tom disguises as to infiltrate G.U.N. headquarters.
• Adam Pally as Wade Whipple, the deputy sheriff of Green Hills who guards the Master Emerald for Knuckles.
• Alyla Browne as Maria Robotnik, Gerald's granddaughter who becomes a close friend to Shadow during his time in Gerald's lab.
• Tom Butler as Commander Walters, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who is the leader of GUN.
  • James Wolk portrays a young Captain Walters in flashbacks from 1974.

Jorma Taccone plays Kyle Lancebottom, a GUN agent on Prison Island who watches over Shadow. Sofia Pernas and Cristo Fernández play Gabriella and Pablo/Juan, characters in a telenovela Ivo watches.

In March 2020, James Marsden confirmed that he had signed on for multiple sequels to Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). In February 2022, Sega Sammy Group and Paramount Pictures had been developing a third film after Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). It was formally announced during ViacomCBS's investor event. Jeff Fowler returned as director, and Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, Toru Nakahara, and Hitoshi Okuno returned as producers. Haruki Satomi, Shuji Utsumi, Yukio Sugino, Fowler, Tommy Gormley, and Tim Miller served as executive producers. Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington returned to write the screenplay, with the former two also being credited for the story. Paul Greenberg and Oren Uziel received off-screen additional literary material credit. In addition, a spin-off television series for Paramount+, Knuckles, was developed simultaneously with the film.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 draws inspiration from the video games Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005). Among the elements from Sonic Adventure 2 incorporated were the fairy-like creatures the Chao. In this film, they are part of a Chao Gardens-themed restaurant in Tokyo, where Team Sonic and Shadow face off for the first time. Fowler felt using the characters in a popular attraction was believable, and could be used as a plot device, such as when Team Sonic needed to have a moment to regroup and have a conversation about what was going on.

In April 2022, Jim Carrey—who portrays Dr. Robotnik in the films—announced that he was considering retiring from acting. With his possible retirement, Moritz and Ascher confirmed that his role as Robotnik would not be recast in any sequels if he followed through with his retirement plans. However, they remained hopeful that they could develop scripts good enough for him to continue the role. Carrey conceded, requiring that "the angels bring some sort of script that's written in gold ink that says to me that it's going to be really important for people to see" if he were to continue.

Second-unit filming began in late July 2023 for animated characters only without physical actors (due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike) in Farnham, Surrey, England. Principal photography was originally scheduled to begin on August 31, 2023, in London, England, but was delayed to September. Production with physical actors started on November 29, 2023, and was announced with a teaser image of Shadow the Hedgehog's stand-in statue used in filming. Brandon Trost returns as cinematographer. Luke Freeborn was production designer.

In February 2024, Carrey was confirmed to be reprising his role. Elaborating on his decision to sign on, he stated that "I came back to this universe because, first of all, I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch. And, you know, it's just... I bought a lot of stuff and I need the money, frankly". Fowler made note of Carrey's comments about a script of gold, printing it out in 24-carat ink, which Fowler says cost about $100,000. Fowler said that asking Carrey to play the dual role of Robotnik's grandfather Gerald was "such a big ask", and meant Carrey had to spend three hours in a makeup chair being physically prepared to play Gerald each time.

To write the role for Carrey, Fowler said they initially focused on parallels between his two characters, "not just with bald heads and giant mustaches, but also in their behavior and their attitude"; they then decided they needed to "create the right sort of conflict" for the film. Carrey also helped design the prosthetics he wore. While Carrey performed each role, actor Brendan Murphy doubled for the other character. During each performance, Carrey informed Murphy how he would be doing the other, a system the former said was "very technically difficult", especially considering that he was interacting with a pre-recorded voice track of the opposite character during his performances.

Additionally, Marsden, Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Idris Elba, Lee Majdoub, and Tom Butler were confirmed to reprise their roles from the previous films. Krysten Ritter, Alyla Browne, James Wolk, Sofia Pernas, Cristo Fernández, and Jorma Taccone were cast in undisclosed roles; Taccone was previously hired as an episode director for the Knuckles series. On February 16, Browne's role was revealed as Maria. Schwartz began recording for the film by the week after. As opposed to acting with a placeholder tennis ball in scenes with Shadow, Browne shot scenes with a Shadow puppet, with his puppeteers ad-libbing certain lines into the film. Marsden said that filming had been completed by March 14, 2024, while Fowler officially revealed that the film had wrapped production on March 29.

On April 15, 2024, it was reported that Keanu Reeves had joined the cast as the voice of Shadow. Fowler said there was an "obvious corollary" between Reeves's performance in the John Wick series and the "vibe we're trying to channel" for Shadow, and thus these films served as a "perfect, albeit unconventional, 'audition'" for the character. Fowler said that Reeves "would just give us so many different versions of line readings and just want to keep going" during voice recording and said he put more into his performance than "just sort of showing up and reading the script into a microphone", both understanding their vision for the film and realizing his interpretation of Shadow; Reeves was prepared with questions to give himself insight about what the team was trying to achieve. Animation supervisor Clem Yip said Reeves's low-key, serious vocal performance informed their visual work.

Fowler felt that the world did not become "edgy" with Shadow's character, but the tone the character brought was "a little bit more exciting, a little bit more dangerous". He acknowledged the elements of firearms and Shadow's motorcycle in his eponymous 2005 video game, and said that they were "very respectful about what fans expect to see and what they love about the character", and that he and his team were "very aware of the times and the right way to handle that kind of imagery in a family film." Fowler previously worked as an animator on Shadow's eponymous 2005 game, and felt honored to adapt the character for the screen.

As a cost-cutting measure, the producers had an in-house animation team at Paramount work on both Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the Knuckles series. Clem Yip serves as animation supervisor, while Al LeVine serves as film editor. Animation was produced by six studios: Rising Sun Pictures, Rodeo FX, Industrial Light & Magic, Fin, Marza Animation Planet and an in-house team at Paramount. Fowler's team took a "speedboat vendor" strategy, dividing the animation work across these six studios.

According to Ascher, the team "made an investment in the Sonic assets and [...] built them in-house," then distributed them to the vendors, which he noted was comparatively different from previous installments where "usually the vendor controls the assets that they rig". Owning the assets also allowed for their in-house team to work exclusively on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles, and helped the production "keep costs down and move faster." Fowler said that "if you have multiple vendors, you have multiple teams you have to bring up to speed, so initially there's an extra level of work that has to be done. But once you do that, because the work is spread out, you do have that opportunity to go back and say, 'Maybe we push this a little bit more or polish that performance a little bit more'". Fowler emphasized the need for visual continuity between the projects and cited communication as critical.

Tom Holkenborg, who composed the score for the first two Sonic films, returned to score Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and had finished work by July 2024. In December 2023, Crush 40 vocalist Johnny Gioeli said there had been talks of including "Live & Learn", the theme song from Sonic Adventure 2. In February 2024, Gioeli confirmed "Live & Learn" would be included in the film. Jelly Roll released a single for the film, "Run It", on November 21, 2024. The film also features the song "Neon" from Japanese rock band One Ok Rock, who previously contributed to the soundtrack for the 2022 game Sonic Frontiers. The soundtrack album was released by Milan Records on December 20, 2024.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 premiered at the Empire Leicester Square in London on December 10, 2024, and at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on December 16. It was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on December 20, 2024, taking over the original release date of The Smurfs Movie (2025). Paramount held a fan event on December 19 for early screenings at theaters in premium formats. It will be released in Australia on December 26 and in the United Kingdom on December 27, both to coincide with Boxing Day.

On Groundhog Day 2024, a small teaser was released, showing off the film's logo and confirming Jim Carrey would return as Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

In April 2024 at CinemaCon, Paramount showcased first-look footage of the film, which featured a heavier Robotnik bemoaning his current state before his assistant Agent Stone informs that "they found him", and Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles fighting a silent Shadow. In July, a popcorn bucket and action figures produced by Jakks Pacific were leaked online. On August 25, the first official tease of Keanu Reeves's involvement as Shadow was posted to the film's TikTok account, which referenced the actor's mention in the first film, captioned "foreSHADOWing". Beginning at that time, images of the film's characters were projected on buildings in locations globally in promotion of the film's first trailer, which released on August 27 alongside a teaser poster. Reeves's role was considered the most prominent feature in the trailer. IGN observed that "Keanu Reeves is very much in Keanu Reeves mode here", and Vulture likened the actor's moody and vengeful portrayal of Shadow to a John Wick performance. Ash Parrish of The Verge agreed that Reeves's voice was satisfactory, and also noted Maria's reveal, anticipating how the film would adapt her fate.

On the opening weekend of Paramount's Transformers One, posters of Shadow were raffled to the first 300 attendees at select theaters, with Reeves signing a limited quantity of them. In commemoration of Halloween, a 10-second clip from the film of Shadow saying "boo" was posted on social media. On November 4, a promotional still image of Shadow was released by Fandango. On November 18, a new poster was released, featuring the main team, the Robotniks, and Shadow, who looms above the cast at the top and also rides his Dark Rider motorcycle at the bottom. Several press outlets were also sent a Sega Genesis cartridge containing promotional posters and voice lines from the characters, as well as a minigame through which the date for the film's second trailer could be unlocked by inputting a cheat code from the game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994); ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑. The trailer was released on November 25. Commentary focused on Shadow's use of a gun in one scene, considering the prominence of firearms in the 2005 Shadow the Hedgehog game and Sega's subsequent disownment, as well as Tails being mistaken for the Pokémon character Pikachu. The phrases "HE HAS A GUN" and "HE PISSED ON THE MOON" began trending on social media following the trailer's release, with the latter being a reference to the popular web series SnapCube's Real-Time Fandub.

By October, the Jakks Pacific toy merchandise was released. The shoe company Reebok produced a tie-in line of sneakers in promotion for the film, and McDonald's will sell Happy Meal toys of the film's characters. AMC Theaters produced a novelty popcorn bucket of Sonic's head and a collectible combo of a cup, drink topper, and a mask. On December 11, 2024, Paramount also released several posters parodying Christmas films such as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, the 2000 adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which also starred Carrey), Elf, Love Actually, Scrooged, A Christmas Story, Four Christmases, Die Hard, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. The original "Ugly Sonic" design from the first film that received backlash was featured as a sweater design that would be given away as a prize along with a chance to win a ticket to see the Los Angeles premiere of the movie for Paramount's "12 Hours of Sonic" giveaway promotion. A stop-motion short, A Very Sonic Christmas, was released on December 11, 2024, with Schwartz, Elba, O'Shaughnessey, and Reeves reprising their roles, and Wade Whipple actor Adam Pally voicing Santa Claus.

A tie-in video game, Shadow Generations, was released in October 2024. The Sonic Team head, Takashi Iizuka, said he wanted to "spotlight Shadow as a character". Downloadable content based on the film was released on December 12, with an additional level set in Tokyo as it appears in the film; during the level, Shadow's appearance changes to resemble his movie counterpart, with Reeves reprising his voice. Reeves and Fowler gave an interview on CBS Mornings to promote the film.

In the United States and Canada, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was released alongside Mufasa: The Lion King, and was initially projected to gross $55–60 million from 3,800 theaters. The film made $6.5 million from Thursday night previews, setting a record for the Sonic franchise. On Friday, the film grossed $25.7 million, a slight decrease from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which made $26.3 million. The film went on to gross $60.1 million during the three-day opening weekend, topping the box office and achieving the second-highest weekend debut for a PG film in December behind 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ($65.6 million).

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 106 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "With a double helping of Jim Carrey's antics and a quicksilver pace befitting its hero, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the best entry in this amiable series yet." As a result, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is currently the highest rated film based on a video game on the platform, surpassing Werewolves Within (2021). Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film an average grade of "A" on its A+ to F scale.

Variety's Owen Gleiberman said that Reeves's "tones of deepest resonance" made Shadow empathetic to the audience, and that Jim Carrey topped his previous work with his roles as the Robotniks. Gleiberman said that Fowler's filmmaking was the real star of the show. Deadline Hollywood felt Fowler's grandeur was in excess, though admitted that audiences would not find this a problem. It said while Carrey's fourth wall breaking was not as impactful given Ryan Reynolds's exceeding success with Deadpool, Sonic was lovable and Elba delivered Knuckles's performance well. Screen Rant named Reeves's Shadow the standout of the film, saying Fowler succeeded in expressing Shadow's story in an emotional and engaging way, and that Reeves was brilliant at conveying the character's "hurt and steel". ComicBook.com's Marc Deschamps wrote that Reeves perfectly portrayed Shadow, with his brooding and darkness mixed well with the film's humor. He said while Gerald and Robotnik largely served as comic relief, their relationship also contextualized Robotnik and Agent Stone's characters, and that the film made a great ending for Robotnik.

The A.V. Club's Matt Donato said that Fowler's direction made the lore in the film "digestible", and that the animation was executed successfully and uniformly such that one could not tell there were six separate studios working on the project. Of Reeves and Carrey, Donato noted Reeves added "stoic somberness" to the established cast and Carrey's doubling up of the "looniness". The Hollywood Reporter observed success with fans, and said that Reeves brought the same gravitas to Shadow that he did to John Wick, feeling his delivery of "quiet condescension" made him "all the scarier for the lack of overt menace". It praised Carrey's jokes yet questioned the returning human characters, and said that while not "sophisticated entertainment", that was not what would be successful with audiences. A. A. Dowd of IGN gave the film a positive review, praising the CGI and Carrey's performance. He also noted the film's omissions of what he perceived as the "dopey buddy comedy" of the first film and the "tiresome pop-culture references" of the second film.

IndieWire gave the film a D, finding the script "asinine", criticizing the humor and CGI, and felt Carrey's dual roles compared to brain rot targeted to children on TikTok. Polygon said Carrey's "gloriously deranged one-man, two-character musical" contrasted with the "utter sincerity" of Reeves, who made Shadow a "weirdly likable little ball of pain". The Guardian was ambivalent about Elba and Reeves's performances and criticized Marsden and Sumpter's chemistry, and said the film would have been "a lot, lot worse" without Carrey. The New York Times's Glenn Kenny felt Reeves brought "suitable emo brooding" to Shadow, and felt that Carrey's "virtuoso double act" and the "teeming computer graphics gadgetry of death and destruction" were both "bombastic".

In September 2024, producer Toby Ascher stated intent for additional Sonic films. Elba and Reeves have expressed interest in a spin-off starring their characters. In December 2024, a fourth Sonic film entered development, set for release in early 2027.

• List of films based on video games

• Official website
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at IMDb 
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at Rotten Tomatoes