Sonic the Hedgehog 3 sees Team Sonic facing their greatest threat as they face the evil Shadow in his quest to destroy the world. To do so, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails form an unlikely alliance with Doctor Robotnik, who faces his own problems following the reemergence of his grandfather Gerald. The film stars Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba and new cast Keanu Reeves as Shadow.
The film is directed by Jeff Fowler, who previously worked on the last two entries in the live-action franchise. Fowler has a long history with the Sonic IP, including working on CGI for the 2005 film hedgehog shadow video game, as well as the recent Knuckles series. Shadow's full introduction has been highly anticipated by fans since the antagonist was first introduced during the credits of Sonic 2with the character set to be the fiercest danger the heroes have ever faced.
Screen speech interviewed Jeff Fowler to discuss the introduction of Shadow's story in Sonic 3balancing a new story with video game lore and which characters could appear in future entries in the franchise.
Shadow was Jeff Fowler's “top priority” in Sonic 3
Introducing a new villain and balancing the existing story with new ideas
Screen Rant: Jeff, Sonic 3 is here. It's really fun. Now obviously all eyes are on the introduction of Shadow and Gerald in this film, but there are a number of iconic elements from the game. How did you balance adapting the games' stories with an approach that was original enough to keep things unpredictable?
Jeff Fowler: That's a great question. That's really the challenge with these movies, because there are so many stories, so many characters that fans love and are dying to see on the big screen. We've certainly gone backwards since Shadow – Shadow had top priority, we take that very seriously. Introducing him, his story that is so loved by the fans, and just wanting to work hard to get it right and really honor what the fans love.
But then it turns out that once we get some of these really important story elements right, what else can we honor? Just like The Chao, these characters – we're in Tokyo, we know we can take advantage of this culture that really celebrates anime and animated characters. And of course, if there is a Chao-themed cafe or restaurant, it will be in Tokyo. Once we had this idea, just watching the team work with it, develop these ideas, and create this whole Chao-themed restaurant was so much fun.
Fowler carefully chooses his post-credits revelations
How new characters are considered and the future of the franchise
Let's analyze Super Sonic and Super Shadow's fight against Dark. Much of the film was set up for Shadow essentially wanting to help destroy the world. What was it like creating a defining moment for your shift to being an antihero? And how much did you take Adventures 2 levels of inspiration in how this happened?
Jeff Fowler: I mean, we're always looking for sources of inspiration and, visually, anything we can do to excite the fans. Every aspect of Shadow is a kind of backstory, its arcs, its curves. It was something that could be its own movie, so having to fit it into a Sonic movie, that was the real trick, so obviously we really worked hard on conceiving these ideas.
Shadow and Maria's relationship, how can we tell a really powerful emotional story, but it has to fit into a certain box because it's a big movie? There are many characters. We have a new Robotnik character out there and we want to explore the family angle from Robotnik's point of view. So it's all these great story threads and how to balance and thread them together, and it was an exciting challenge.
Any Sonic fan knows that there is a post-credits scene, but there are two post-credits scenes, so just sit there and watch until the end. You will have a second post-credits scene. I want to talk about this for a second – what's the future of the franchise looking like, and have there been conversations about Sonic 4 Is it already in the works or something like that?
Jeff Fowler: There are so many great characters. Sonic has been around for over 30 years, we love moving down the list, and it's fun to watch fans speculate online. Everyone has their favorites; on our side, everyone has their favorites. It's fun to brainstorm and come up with story ideas, it's a package deal.
We would never introduce characters at the end of one of these films that we weren't already excited about where they could take the story, because that's what really determines which characters get cast. It's like, “What would be new? What would be interesting? What would be a fun direction to take our world?” So when these characters, like Shadow, were introduced at the end of Sonic 2, we knew he would be a very exciting character and would really shake things up in the films – the choice was clear.
More about Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog returns to the big screen this holiday season in his most thrilling adventure yet. Sonic, Knuckles and Tails come together against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they've ever faced. With their abilities surpassed in every way, Team Sonic must seek an unlikely alliance in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.
Check out our others Sonic the Hedgehog 3 interviews here:
Source: Screen Rant Plus