Bringing Shadow the Hedgehog to life on the massive display has been a two-decade journey for Jeff Fowler, the director of Sega and Paramount’s live-action Sonic the Hedgehog films. Fowler lastly obtained his want together with his 2024 film Sonic the Hedgehog 3. However he first obtained his palms on Shadow again in 2003, when he labored on the darkish hedgehog’s first stand-alone recreation, Shadow the Hedgehog — a venture that goes virtually all the best way again to the character’s inception.
On the time, Fowler was working at Blur Studio, an animation and visible results firm located in Culver Metropolis, California. Blur has labored on dozens of trailers and cinematics for video video games, and most lately launched the Prime Video sequence Secret Degree.
“We obtained employed by Sega for the sport Shadow the Hedgehog — Shadow’s second recreation,” Fowler recalled to Polygon. “Sega knew they actually had one thing in him, and they also needed to offer him his personal recreation. [Blur] needed to create some cool, actually splashy cinematics to assist help it. The piece I keep in mind probably the most, as a result of it was probably the most dynamic and had quite a lot of nice motion, was the intro, the place the town is being invaded by the Black Arms forces.”
As Fowler remembers it, “There are all these large alien creatures working, wreaking havoc on the town. Shadow rides in on his bike. The bike smashes into one of many attackers, and he goes backflipping, somersaulting by means of the air. He’s obtained a submachine gun, and he’s simply being superior and doing very, very superior stuff.”
Certainly one of Shadow’s large scenes in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has a few of that cinematic DNA. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails confront Shadow within the coronary heart of Tokyo’s Shibuya district — solely this time it’s the darkish hedgehog wreaking havoc, tossing cop vehicles, and throttling our hirsute heroes. Shadow will get his gun and escapes on the again of a bike, all whereas doing extraordinarily superior stuff.
At Blur, Fowler additionally labored on the extra low-key cinematic moments seen in Shadow the Hedgehog, together with tragic moments from Shadow’s backstory, like his relationship with Maria Robotnik. Those self same moments are additionally woven into the narrative occasions of Sonic 3, which attracts from Shadow’s first solo recreation and his debut look in Sonic Journey 2.
Because of that early animation expertise, Fowler stated, “I actually cherished the character. So the concept that now, 20 years later, we’re providing up this film model with Keanu [Reeves as Shadow] is simply — it’s unbelievable. It’s such a full-circle second, and really surreal.”
Shadow’s debut within the Sonic cinematic universe was teased in a post-credits sequence in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, earlier than the manufacturing had landed Reeves for the function. However Fowler stated Reeves “was the prime of the listing” to voice the edgy ’hog.
“His characters are likely to have just a little bit extra of an edge, and a tone to them that felt like it could be a extremely nice match for Shadow,” Fowler stated, pointing to Reeves’ breakout John Wick movies. “He’s that antihero that’s nonetheless actually likable, [who] you’re rooting for on a regular basis.”
Fowler instructed that Shadow and Maria’s relationship is without doubt one of the key causes Reeves signed on for the function — not simply the John Wick– and The Matrix-inspired guns-blazing motion. The director pitched Reeves on what’s “beneath the hood of the characters, and what’s being requested from a efficiency standpoint.”
“With Shadow, all of it comes all the way down to this backstory,” Fowler stated. “The Shadow/Maria relationship, it’s so necessary to the fan base, and so necessary for us to get proper. […] Keanu actually linked with all these parts, the depth of Shadow, his dramatic backstory. I feel he actually noticed a possibility to do one thing that may be a problem. In fact, he had quite a lot of questions — he actually, actually needed to get it proper.”
In keeping with Fowler, Reeves approaching the character of Shadow from an outsider’s perspective was a boon to find the cinematic model of the character. “An awesome instance is simply the very first assembly between Sonic and Shadow,” Fowler stated. “We had written it plenty of other ways. Ought to it’s jokey? Ought to it’s critical?”
Reeves’ pitch was someplace in between, with Shadow taking the introduction severely and considerably dismissively, in comparison with his then-rival Sonic. Recalled Fowler, “When Sonic says, ‘Who’re you?’ And Shadow’s like, ‘Who am I? Who’re you?’ Sonic says, ‘Why do you appear like me?’ He says, ‘I don’t appear like you. You appear like me.’ It was simply quite simple — humorous, however not making an attempt too onerous to be humorous. Everyone cherished it.”
Fowler additionally acknowledged that Reeves’ method to Shadow was to not compete with or match the voice work of his co-stars — Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Idris Elba as Knuckles, and Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Tails — however to search out his place among the many furry buddies.
“The factor that [Keanu] did that was actually good is, he regarded on the spectrum of the characters, with Sonic being increased than Ben’s regular talking voice,” Fowler defined, “and Tails being very excessive, being kind of the excessive finish of the register, and Knuckles being very low — so low that it’s a terrific supply of comedy. Keanu didn’t wish to be wherever close to Ben, or wherever close to Idris. And so he simply discovered the candy spot in between the 2 of them.
“When it comes to supply, one factor we actually mentioned upfront was that Sonic and Ben are so animated, Knuckles is bombastic, and Tails could be very energetic and youthful. Shadow is, like, nonetheless waters run deep, proper? He doesn’t say so much, however when he does say one thing, it has quite a lot of weight to it. So it wasn’t about making a caricature, and even altering his voice a lot. Oftentimes when actors are available, they’re like, Oh, I’m taking part in an animated character, so I’ve to do one thing stylized with my voice. The character didn’t want that, however wanted to be taken very severely.”
On condition that Fowler has spent 20 years fascinated with Shadow the Hedgehog — a very long time for somebody who doesn’t work on the video games anymore — I requested him what his favourite little bit of Shadow trivia is.
“It’s that Shadow’s favourite meals is espresso beans,” Fowler stated. The darkish hedgehog eats them by the spoonful. “Which could be very weird and I couldn’t even inform you [how I know that], nevertheless it caught with me and I don’t understand how many individuals know that. He chews on uncooked espresso beans! That’s how robust he’s.”