Why Shadow's Sonic 3 Storyline Was The Most Challenging Game Adaptation Yet Explained By Franchise Writers

Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Sonic the Hedgehog 3!

With the character's introduction being hailed as a highlight of the film, Pat Casey and Josh Miller share why Shadow's storyline in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was their trickiest adaptation job yet. Having been teased in the previous movie's credits scene, the threequel properly brought Shadow to the franchise, with Keanu Reeves voicing the antihero hedgehog as he sets out on a quest for revenge for the death of his only friend, Maria Robotnik, 50 years earlier at the hands of GUN. The movie's story primarily pulled from Sonic Adventure 2 and the Shadow the Hedgehog spinoff game for its exploration of Shadow.

During an interview with ScreenRant to celebrate the release of the film, Casey and Miller shared some insight into how they went about pulling from the games to adapt Shadow's story for the screen. The franchise writers acknowledged it was "both fun and tricky compared to the first two films", given they were now fully pulling from source material rather than the "broad outline" they had in the previous two:

Josh Miller: It was both fun and tricky compared to the first two films. As a Sonic fan, you know, those are drawing from games that had much more rudimentary storylines. Like, for Knuckles, it was pretty much just, "He's trying to guard the Emerald, Robotnik's manipulating him into thinking that Sonic is a bad guy, and then at some point, he realizes the truth, and they team up."

Pat Casey: And that was great, because that gave us a broad outline, but then everything else we could just make what we wanted. Whereas for this one, we really wanted to be true to Shadow's emotional story, and the Maria stuff, even though some details were changed to sort of simplify things, or make things make a little more sense within the context of our real world that these movies take place. Whereas in the Sonic Adventure games, there's humans, but it's like, "Is that our world? Is that another world?" It's pretty unclear. [Laughs]

They would go on to explain that part of their job having written all three Sonic movies is to "just kind of blast Jeff Fowler with ideas" for what to pull from the games, with the director ultimately serving as "the filter" for what makes it in. They did, though, also acknowledge that Fowler was "very concerned with getting the Maria elements" and Shadow's backstory correct, and that even though they made "some alterations", it was always done with a purpose. Check out the rest of what Miller and Casey shared below:

Josh Miller: [Laughs] Yeah, so it was definitely trickier, and we feel like our job on this franchise is to just kind of blast Jeff Fowler with ideas, and he serves as the filter through what makes it in the movie. We know he was very concerned with getting the Maria elements and all that backstory stuff correct.

Pat Casey: Even though, yeah, we made some alterations, obviously, and brought Gerald into the present rather than existing only in flashbacks. But part of that was realizing that we could trick Jim into playing a second character. And then once we had that, we were like, "Well, we've got to feature this character, we got Jim Carrey playing him." And just the idea of the two Jims interacting was too good to pass up.

Josh Miller: Even for him, we were told he got very excited when Jeff presented the idea to him.

What This Means For Shadow's Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Story

There Were Indeed A Few Changes Made From The Games

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To Casey and Miller's point, as accurate as the movie was to the games, Sonic the Hedgehog 3's story did make some changes in regard to Shadow's storyline. In the games, it was revealed that Shadow was actually a creation of Gerald Robotnik meant to cure his granddaughter of a deadly illness. The movie, instead, revealed him to have crashed on Earth in a meteorite and subsequently experimented on by the elder Robotnik, while no mention of an illness was made for Maria.

Additionally, the elder Robotnik only appears in flashbacks in Sonic Adventure 2 and the Shadow the Hedgehog game, rather than having him in the present day interacting with his orphaned grandson, Ivo. It was also the younger Robotnik who released Shadow in an effort to conquer the world, whereas in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, it's revealed that Gerald is the one who hacked into GUN's system to revive the hedgehog, with his own plan to destroy the Earth in comparison to his grandson's scheme to rule over it under the threat of destruction from the ARK.

Related Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Ending Explained: Shadow & Sonic's Fight, Major Deaths & Sequel Setup Sonic the Hedgehog 3's ending keeps the focus on Sonic's arc and his dark reflection in Shadow, while also giving Robotnik a great potential send-off.

These deviations don't seem to have hurt the movie's reception, however, as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has set two massive Rotten Tomatoes records, becoming the best-reviewed video game movie adaptation ever, with an 88% "Certified Fresh" rating from critics and near-perfect 97% score from audiences. The film is also doing quite well at the box office, achieving the second-highest weekend debut for a PG movie released in December behind The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, while also netting the highest Thursday night preview haul for the Sonic franchise.

Our Take On Shadow's Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Story

The Changes Made Could Actually Set Up Future Installments

While changes to a source material don't always add up to the best choices, those made by Casey and Miller for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 could actually prove beneficial for the franchise's future. Not much is known about the already confirmed Sonic the Hedgehog 4 story, save for an expectation of Amy Rose's proper debut after her mid-credits scene and Shadow's return after the post-credits reveal of his survival. However, given the franchise previously expanded with the Knuckles miniseries, the immediate success of Shadow's debut could very well lead to a spinoff show.

Related 6 Ways Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Sets Up Sonic 4 Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has been confirmed, and there are a handful of likely stories set up by Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for the new sequel to explore.

In the games, Shadow lost his memory after helping Sonic defeat Eggman and the ARK, while his spinoff saw him face off against an alien army led by a figure known as Black Doom, whose DNA it was revealed Gerald had used to create the antihero hedgehog. As such, since Sonic the Hedgehog 3 showed Shadow arriving on Earth in a meteorite, it could very well be that the creative team behind the franchise are looking to adapt this storyline in the near future, be it a spinoff show or the next movie. Whichever they decide, the progressively excellent showings they've delivered with each movie give me a lot of hope for Shadow's future.