On the heels of a very busy CinemaCon presentation for Paramount Pictures last week, John Wick and Matrix film franchises star Keanu Reeves has revealed that he will proved the voice of fan-favorite character Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The film was sneak peeked during Thursday’s presentation, offering a first glimpse at this incarnation of the black-furred hedgehog. The pic will open December 20.
Created by game director Takashi Iizuka and writer Shiro Maekawa for the 2001 SEGA game Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow is a mercurial antihero in the franchise, sometimes allying with Dr. Robotnik/Eggman (as in the big screen threequel) and sometimes with Sonic.
Shadow the Hedgehog led his own self-titled game (2005) and has appeared in the animated series Sonic X (2003), voiced by Jason Griffith; Sonic Boom (2014), voice by Kirk Thornton; and Netflix’s Sonic Prime, which launched its third and final season in January, voiced by Ian Hanlin.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 also features the voices of Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Tails and Idris Elba as Knuckles. Jim Carrey returns as Dr. Robotnik, as well as James Marsden, with Tika Sumpter, Lee Majdoub, Tom Butler and Alyla Browne. Jeff Fowler returns as director.
In addition to this memorable turn as the live-action “Sage” in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, Reeves’ notable animation credits include playing Batman in DC League of Super-Pets, Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4 and reprising the role of Neo for The Animatrix. Upcoming, he is working on the John Wick spinoff Ballerina, Constantine 2 and both the live-action movie and anime series adaptation of BRZRKR, the comic he co-created and wrote with Matt Kindt.
[Source: The John Campea Show – watch here]
