The dark ending of ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’, explained

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the best entry in a trilogy that has gotten better with each episode, marking the end of Shadow’s sad story and teasing a new direction for another sequel.

Warning – Spoilers ahead

What happens at the end of ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’?

Sonic 3 introduces the fan-favorite anti-hero, Shadow the Hedgehog (played by a perfectly cast Keanu Reeves), giving Sonic (Ben Schwartz) his biggest challenge yet.

Shadow plays a similar role as Venom does to Spiderman, acting as Sonic’s darker, edgier mirror. He is Sonic with a terrible father figure and a dead sister, a turbocharged hedgehog who has only seen the sharp edges of the world.

Shadow is clearly stronger than Sonic and the others in this movie, but chooses not to deal fatal blows to Sonic’s crew. That said, Shadow doesn’t hold back when he attacks Tom (James Marsden), mistaking him for an enemy and seriously injuring him.

Tom’s injury awakens something in Sonic; against the recommendation of Knuckles (Idris Elba), Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to transcend into his super state.

Meanwhile, Ivo Robotnick has teamed up with the terrible father figure, his grandfather Gerald, who is also something of a dark mirror (Jim Carrey plays both characters, and he’s clearly comfortable jumping between them).

While orbiting Earth, aboard Gerald’s space-faring superweapon, Ivo finally realizes that his dear old grandfather is even more unhinged than he is, and seeks to destroy the entire planet.

Shadow, who is as young as Sonic, is something of a grieving child and is willing to join the genocide to avenge his fallen friend, Maria Robotnik (Alyla Browne).

Gerald and Ivo engage in one Rick and Morty-style match involving lots of metal reinforcement. As the two scientists fight, Shadow and Sonic do Dragon Ball in space, both harnessing the emeralds’ power to gain superpowers.

Shadow fights back, but ultimately believes that he deserves Sonic’s revenge, recognizing that Sonic shares his pain of losing a loved one. Like Shadow, Sonic’s pain allows him to enter his most vicious fighting mode and manages to take down Shadow, who welcomes his death.

Sonic spares Shadow and the two form an alliance, with Shadow recognizing the importance of protecting Earth in Maria’s memory.

Will Doctor Robotnik And Shadow Die In ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 3’?

Ivo quickly defeats Gerald and directs the laser away from Earth with the help of Sonic’s friends. But the weapon malfunctions and remains a threat, so Shadow and Ivo team up to save Earth from the ensuing explosion.

Sonic and his friends make it back to Earth safely (and Tom survives), but Robotnik and Shadow sacrifice themselves to push the weapon to a safe distance, seemingly engulfed by the explosion.

Notably, we don’t see a full on-screen death or bodies, so the characters could easily be brought back for a sequel since Shadow had the ability to teleport and save them both.

If not, they both had good endings.

Their return depends on whether Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey return to their roles. Reeves seemed to enjoy playing Shadow, describes experience as “encouraging” and could be convinced to return.

Carrey talked about retiring from acting after Sonic 2but told Associated Press for which he came back Sonic 3 because “I bought a lot of stuff and I need the money, honestly.”

There is possibly a possibility that Carrey would return for a sequel, as he stated Comicbook.com“I said I wanted to retire, but I think I was talking more about ‘power rest.’ Because as soon as a great idea comes along or a group of people that you really enjoyed working with and such something, then it just tends to change.”

Paramount recently announced a fourth Sonic movie scheduled for 2027.

What’s going to happen in ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 4’?

The mid-credit scene of Sonic 3 shows Sonic driving forward and finding himself surrounded by darkness before facing Metal Sonic, his robotic clone. Like Shadow, Metal Sonic is a popular antagonist and mirror of Sonic.

This scene offers a different take on Metal, showing that there’s an entire army of Metal Sonics, but they’re all dispatched rather easily, after a surprise appearance from Amy wielding her signature hammer.

Amy is another popular character who is often depicted as Sonic’s love interest and co-hero, but it is unclear if she is time traveling or if Sonic has time traveled.

The film’s writers were careful to confirm details, describing the mid-credits scene as “planting a flag,” but the potential of time travel opens the door for another character from the Sonic franchise – Silver the Hedgehog.

Silver is from the future and boasts telekinetic powers, so there is a possibility that he could join the ever-growing circle of anthropomorphic animals that inhabit Sonic film.

The wide selection of Sonic games and comics out there have many, many plotlines for future movies to cover, and Sonic 3 director Jeff Fowler anticipates that Paramount “can continue to grow the world and grow the family of Sonic characters.”

Fowler seems eager to expand, says Black“I feel like we’re just getting there.”

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