In what, if true, would be a surprising albeit admittedly inspired casting decision, word on the street currently suggests that upon his proper silver screen debut in Paramount’s upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the titular hero’s black-quilled rival Shadow the Hedghog will be voiced by none other than John Wick and Cyberpunk 2077 star Keanu Reeves.
Word of Reeves’ potential casting was first raised by film journalist and critic John Campea via the April 15th of his eponymous podcast, The John Campea Show.
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Therein, Campea recalled that while he saw no indication at the recent CinemaCon 2024 that, as suggested by previous rumors, Star Wars lead Hayden Christensen had been cast as the Ultimate Lifeform, he had received an interesting bit of information from an unnamed individual ostensibly attached to the production of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
“I was approached by somebody that I recognized very well, and somebody that, while I can’t say who it is, at least half of you would recognize and know If we’re to say their name,” he detailed. “He said ‘you know Hayden Christensen’ is not the voice of Shadow.’ I’m like ‘Really?!'”
“I said ‘I figured that because he’s not here, like I’d have thought they’d brought him out on stage,'” Campea continued. “[The unnamed individual then] goes, ‘No, we’re not announcing it publicly yet, and please don’t say anything until the week after CinemaCon 2024’ – which is where we’re at now – he said ‘It’s Keanu Reeves. It’s done, it’s signed. Keanu Reeves is our voice of Shadow.'”
In light of this reveal, Campea emphasized that while he both believed the source and had apparently confirmed the information with another unnamed-but-trusted individual, fans should be cautious about treating his – or any other – scoop as gospel until it is officially reported by outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter or Variety.
(Notably, though both outlets eventually did run respective articles on the news, their source was Campea himself rather than Paramount Pictures. As such, Reeves’ casting still remains officially unconfirmed.)
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Making his debut in 2001’s Sonic Adventure 2, the brooding anti-hero known as Shadow was created by Dr. Eggman’s grandfather, Gerald, as part of a government-funded experiment to develop the ‘Ultimate Lifeform’.
Unfortunately, when the true nature of his existence as a weapon is uncovered, Shadow soon finds himself the subject of a manhunt at the hands of the very government he was created to fight for.
Eventually captured and placed into suspended animation, Shadow proceeds to spend the next few years being under the care of Gerald, who in his grief over his daughter Maria’s death during a government raid of his research lab begins to secretly brainwash him into believing that his true purpose was to ‘kill all humans’.
Set free by Dr. Eggman at the start of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow proceeds to team-up with the villain in order to get revenge for the aforementioned Maria – and it is in the course of his villain plot that he comes to lock quills with the game’s titular hero through both of the game’s respective Dark and Hero storylines.
However, after learning more about his past, by the end of the game, Shadow agrees to work with Sonic to save the world.
And ever since, the near-total-opposite-to-Sonic has been one of the franchise’s most popular characters, appearing in everything from his own solo title – 2005’s repetitive and buggy Shadow the Hedgehog – to the Sonic Boom animated series, to the upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations.
(Funnily enough, in Sonic Boom, Shadow’s debut is met with the exclamation from Eggman that “He’s only the second most popular character in the whole canon!”)
In fact, Shadow has become such a fan-favorite that he was voted into the Guiness World Records’ list of the Top 50 Most Popular Video Game Characters, coming in at Number 25 – just fifteen spaces behind Sonic, who slid into the list at Number 10.
Interestingly, as noted above, despite coming a bit out of left-field, Reeves casting as Shadow is an inspired choice.
Not only can one draw parallels between his titular character in the John Wick series and Shadow himself – both are willing to do anything to achieve his goals, a walking nightmare to his enemies, and more than handy with a gun and fisticuffs – but, his ‘raspy’ voice follows in the tradition of Shadow’s previous voice actors David Humphrey, Jason Griffith, Kirk Thorton, and Ian Hamlin.
In a prophetic Easter Egg, Reeves was mentioned in the first Sonic the Hedgehog film. As Sonic watches TV through the Wachowski’s window, he sees the title card for Speed. “Yes! Keanu!! You are a national treasure,” Sonic dotes. It seems flattery- and two very successful films- will get you anywhere.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 premiers December 20th, with Ben Schwartz (Sonic), Colleen O’Shaughnessey (Tails), Idris Elba (Knuckles), Jim Carrey (Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik), James Marsden (Tom Wachowski), Tika Sumpter (Maddie Wachowski), Lee Majdoub (Agent Stone), and Alyla Browne (Maria).
At current, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is on track to spin dash its way into theaters on December 20th.
Unfortunately for fans hoping to see Shadow pick up a gun in his cinematic debut, given that the previous two films in the trilogy have been rated PG, it’s unlikely that the hedgehog will get to show off his gunslinging capabilities.