Don’t ask me how many times I’ve watched the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the third entry in Paramount’s live-action adaptation of the life and times of Sega’s speedy mascot. Don’t ask me if I just watched it again after typing that sentence. While the wait was excruciating, fans’ reactions to the first three minutes of footage from the upcoming live-action adaptation have been pretty much universally positive. It’s still a few months before the movie premieres on December 20, but with nearly 20 million views on Twitter alone, the first trailer has been a viral sensation all its own.
Let’s break down some of the big talking points coming out of the first trailer.
Keanu Reeves as Shadow
Ever since we found out that The Matrix star Keanu Reeves would be voicing Shadow the Hedgehog, the blue blur’s rival and the antagonist of the third movie, fans have been waiting to hear what he would sound like. And he sounds like the most broody version of Reeves you can imagine, but it also works with the enigmatic, dangerous version of Shadow we see in the trailer.
What we’ve seen thus far feels like a happy medium between the theatrical villain he was in Sonic Adventure 2 and the boorish loner he’s become as of late. However, that drama comes through in his mannerisms and the stylish way he fights. Skeptics are leaving the trailer as believers. However, some folks want to hear the full breadth of his performance and feel like they were expecting Reeves to put on more of a “voice.” This has been a contentious discussion point surrounding films like the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which notoriously had actors like Chris Pratt and Seth Rogan speaking basically just like themselves. But I’d argue Reeves’ delivery fits Shadow more than those actors fit Mario and Donkey Kong.
Our first look at Maria Robotnik
Shadow is the focus of much of the trailer, and that includes a look at his tragic backstory. In Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow’s path of destruction begins after the death of Maria Robotnik, a young girl who Shadow was created to save from a life-threatening illness. Maria will be portrayed by Furiosa actor Alyla Browne, and based on the trailer, it looks like she will meet a similar fate in the film. Fans are (jokingly) excited, but some also hope that the jokes don’t make their way into the theater, because hearing a bunch of people cheering as a child dies on-screen would not capture the somber tone of the scene.
No girls allowed
While Reeves has been mostly praised for his portrayal of Shadow thus far, a big point of contention surrounding Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is that we’re three movies in and none of the women in the Sonic series have made an appearance yet. There was a lot of speculation ahead of the movie’s proper unveiling that Rouge the Bat, the treasure-hunting spy who works with Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2, may make her live-action debut in the film, but there’s no sign of her in the first trailer. Amy Rose, the hammer-swinging hero who also has a pretty significant role in Sonic Adventure 2, is also nowhere to be seen. Though the movies have been gradually introducing Sonic’s anthropomorphic crew rather than dumping them all into the series at once, the lack of two major players and the obvious gender disparity is bumming fans out. Some are keeping hope alive, however, and theorize Amy may have been edited out of the trailer to surprise fans at a later date.
The memes
So much happens in the Sonic 3 trailer that it feels like dozens of in-jokes have already sprouted up just from these three minutes of footage. This has ranged from putting exaggerated screams into footage of Shadow absolutely owning Knuckles to making edits of the villain’s chaos and destruction. The jokes are good, and the trailer also added to a longstanding meme of Shadow beating up Sonic’s best friend Tails, as he once again lays out the two-tailed fox in another continuity.
The theories
The jokes are all well and good, but fans are looking for any clue about what’s coming from the trailer, and some theories seem pretty plausible. One scene shows Sonic giving Jim Carrey’s Doctor Robotnik one of his superpowered quills, and fans are already speculating this could be used to create his synthetic doppelganger Metal Sonic. While that’s a fun theory, there are also less fun ones sprouting up around possible death flags. One scene shows James Marsden’s Tom Wachowski, the human lead of the live-action movies, shouting for Sonic during what appears to be one of Shadow’s rampages. These movies haven’t shied away from death, as Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow each have tragic backstories, but this might be the first time the movies kill off a main character. If Tom kicks the bucket, it would be thematically in-line with the topics of grief the movie is wrestling with.
The fan art
Theory-crafting, jokes, and critique are great, but what I love most about big blowouts like this is how they inspire creativity within the community. The trailer is full of moments that have already been beautifully recreated by fan artists, as well as fans taking some scenes and running with them. This one of baby Sonic making the chalk drawings shown of him and Longclaw is one of my favorites.
Look how far we’ve come
The hype for Sonic 3 is real, but seeing so much love outpouring for the movie is dizzying considering how the original draft for the live-action Sonic looked much, much worse. It’s been five years since the horrendous original trailer broke the internet and nearly ended the live-action franchise before it started. Now, we’re only a few months away from seeing a much better-looking Sonic face off against Shadow. It’s nice to live in the timeline where that crisis was avoided, but fans decided to remind us what Shadow could have looked like if someone didn’t grab hold of the steering wheel.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 arrives in theaters on December 20. For more on the trailer, check out our extensive breakdown of everything we saw.
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