Sonic has been on a roll lately in the world of TV and film. With the final season of Sonic Prime streaming early this year and a spin-off of the film franchise starring Knuckles set to release shortly, arguably the most anticipated Sonic product of the year would be the third entry in the film series, creatively titled Sonic the Hedgehog 3. While some people are excited solely because it’s a new Sonic movie, I’m personally excited thanks entirely to the big screen debut of Shadow the Hedgehog. And now, we finally know who voices him.
Shadow the Hedgehog Voice Actor
We’ve known that Shadow was going to feature in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ever since the conclusion of the previous film. The post-credits scene of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 showed Shadow being awakened in a government facility, but there had been no mention until now of who is voicing him. Speculation said that the once-popular badboy, Hayden Christensen, would be voicing him, but I thought it was a toss-up whether or not he would be voiced by a big name Hollywood actor, like how Idris Elba voices Knuckles, or if a veteran voice actor from the game series would voice him, like how Colleen O’Shaughnessey voices Tails.
We can now confirm that Paramount went with the former option, casting the one and only Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, Keanu Reeves is probably best known for playing John Wick, the unstoppable hitman known for an incredibly high body count, in the film series of the same name. This isn’t the first time that Keanu Reeves lent his voice to an animated project, with Reeves previously voicing Batman in 2022’s DC League of Super Pets and Duke Kaboom in Toy Story 4.
Personally, I can totally see him in the role. Thanks to his tenure as John Wick, I’d like to think that Keanu has developed the perfect stoic badass voice. It’ll be fun to see him bounce off of Jim Carrey, who is set to return Dr. Eggman, as they’ll probably share dual antagonist roles in the film. Now all we need is a trailer to really show off how Keanu’s voice will bring the Ultimate Lifeform to the big screen.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is set to release on December 20, 2024.
