The stinger is one of the most interesting scenes in the whole trailer. We see Carrey also playing Gerald Robotnik. In the games, Gerald is long gone by the time Shadow reawakens and attempts to destroy the world. Here, we see both grandfather and grandson meet and hug it out. Gerald was the secret villain of Sonic Adventure 2, who put things into motion before his death to destroy the world in an act of vengeance for Maria’s death. The whole big emotional turn of that game is that Shadow remembers Maria’s final wish to bring hope to humanity and saves the world rather than destroying it. So if Gerald is still alive, I’m curious to see how Sonic 3 handles this storyline. It’s also not out of the question that Robotnik could be talking to his grandfather through some magical mumbo jumbo, as the Knuckles show established that the dead can speak to the living. I’m not used to Gerald Robotnik being portrayed as anything other than a grieving mad scientist, so we’ll see where this is going.
Sadly, it does look like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be omitting Rouge the Bat and Amy Rose, two key players in the Sonic Adventure 2 story, unless they pull a Spider-Man: No Way Home and keep them out of the marketing. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to streamline Shadow’s debut for the film given the shorter runtime, and that might mean that Rouge and the layers she brings to the story may have to be left on the cutting room floor.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 premieres on December 20.
