Keanu Reeves is about to lend his voice to the newest movie in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, joining the all-star cast for the December release.

Paramount Pictures

SUMMARY

 Keanu Reeves is set to voice Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 , building excitement for the upcoming movie.
 The success of the Sonic movies lies in faithfully adapting classic game characters. into a real-world setting.

 The Sonic franchise capitalizes on its popularity with the Knuckles TV series bridging movie sequels.

Keanu Reeves has seemingly been confirmed to be lending his voice to Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

As revealed on The John Campea Show, and backed up by sources from The Hollywood Reporter, the ever-popular actor will be joining the returning stars of the franchise, including Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik and Ben Schwartz as the voice of the titular blue speedster.

Reeves’ involvement in the new movie is just another step up for the franchise, which expanded its original cast by adding Idris Elba and Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Knuckles and Tails, respectively, in the second installment.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is preparing to delve deeper into the world of Sega’s mascot, and, as teased at the end of the last movie, will see Shadow the Hedgehog playing a pivotal role.

Fans of the franchise have been more than happy with the arrival of Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – so much so that he is getting his own spin-off TV show – and the casting of Reeves in the role of Shadow is only going to increase the hype around the arrival of another game icon.

The success of the Sonic films can be attributed to the faithful adaptation of the classic game characters into a combined real-world/game-world hybrid setting.

The original discourse of the design of Sonic prior to the release of his first movie – the unforgettable “ugly Sonic” debacle – proved to be enough to ensure that subsequent character designs have not attempted to stray from the game versions in any way.

This seems to be the case with Shadow, who appeared very briefly in the post-credits scene of Sonic 2, and along with the increasingly game-accurate look of Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is shaping up to be the biggest and best Sonic movie to date.

The Sonic the Hedgehog Franchise is Riding a Wave of Popular Video Game Adaptations

In many ways, the success of Sonic the Hedgehog in 2020 really kicked off the flood of popular and profitable video game adaptations that have been released in the last four years. From The Super Mario Bros.

Movie, through The Last of Us to the newly released Fallout TV series on Prime Video, after years of being unable to make a good video game adaptation, Hollywood seems to be incapable of making a bad one.

For the Sonic franchise, this has led to not only the expected movie sequels but the upcoming Knuckles TV series, which recently revealed its first-look footage.

Proving that the franchise’s popularity is not being confined to the big screen, the trailer smashed Paramount+ records with over 4.3 million views in its first 24 hours.

The series will act as a bridge between the second and third Sonic movies, and will drop all six episodes on Paramount+ on April 26. You can check out the trailer for yourself below.

From the attention being bestowed upon the trailer, there is little doubt that Knuckles will become one of Paramount+’s biggest original productions, and combined with the sure-fire Christmas hit that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will bring this December, the franchise looks set to speed on for some time to come.