Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Wraps Filming

Sonic 3 races into theaters December 2024.

By Cameron Bonomolo

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is speeding toward the finish line. James Marsden, who plays the blue hedgehog's human father and Green Hills sheriff Tom Wachowski, revealed that the sequel has wrapped filming. Paramount Pictures has dated Sonic 3 — which pits the Ben Schwartz-voiced Sonic against Jim Carrey's demented Dr. Robotnik for a third round of the live-action video game adaptation — for theatrical release on December 20, 2024. (Also on the way is the Knuckles spinoff series, streaming April 26 on Paramount+).

"Yeah, we just wrapped [Sonic the Hedgehog 3]. We were near the Deadpool stages, actually," Marsden told The Playlist during an interview, suggesting he might reprise his X-Men role of Cyclops in another threequel: the Pinewood Studios-shot Deadpool & Wolverine. 

Marsden also added that his Sonic co-star Carrey, who announced in 2022 that he would be "retiring" from acting, "really enjoyed" his third time playing the blue blur's mad scientist archnemesis.

"I'm really proud of what we've created [with Sonic] and the response from the fans and everything. We just had to get the animation right in that first movie," Marsden said. "But it's a great family, all positive. Jim's just having a ball. He's in his inspiration zone, and he comes to set ... with like pages and pages — really sheet music for the day, like really calculated and prepared. So it's a joy to watch him have a good time."

Plot details remain under wraps, but 2022's Sonic 2 ended with a mid-credits scene teasing the arrival of another fan-favorite character: Shadow the Hedgehog. The anti-hero black hedgehog also appeared in the first teaser image announcing that Sonic 3 was "off and running" as filming started in November 2023.

Along with Schwartz, Marsden, and Carrey, Colleen O'Shaughnessey and Idris Elba reprise their voice roles as Sonic allies Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna, respectively. Tika Sumpter returns to her role as Tom's wife, Maddie, and Lee Majdoub is back as Robotnik's number-two, Agent Stone. Also included are Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, Marvel's Jessica Jones), James Wolk (Mad Men), Sofia Pernas (Blood & Treasure), Cristo Fernàndez (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts), and Jorma Taccone (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) in undisclosed roles. Alyla Browne (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) will play Maria, a key character from Shadow's mysterious past with ties to Project Shadow.

"The fact that Shadow is clearly going to be in the franchise moving forward, I don't think it's revealing anything to say we'd love to incorporate elements from [video games] Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog, his solo spinoff game," Josh Miller, who co-wrote Sonic 3 with Patrick Casey, teased in 2022.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 opens only in theaters December 20.

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