2024 is a good year to be a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. In addition to the Knuckles spinoff series debuting to Paramount+ subscribers later this month, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will come out towards the end of the 2024 movies schedule. We’ve known who’s comprising the main Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cast for a while now, but today brings word that Keanu Reeves has come aboard too, and the role he’s been selected to play is top-notch.
According to THR, Reeves will be the voice of Shadow in the threequel, who made a silent cameo appearance at the end of 2022’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2. In this universe, the character is the title subject of the secret government program called Project Shadow, and as revealed at CinemaCon last week, Shadow will factor into the latest round of scheming from Jim Carrey’s Doctor Robotnik. Reeves will join fellow voice cast members Ben Schwartz (Sonic), Idris Elba (Knuckles) and Colleen O’Shaughnessey (Tails), along with live-action performers like James Marsden and Tika Sumpter.
Although these days Keanu Reeves is best known for leading the John Wick movies, he’s certainly no stranger to voice acting. In addition to vocally reprising Neo for The Animatrix, he also voiced the title cat of Keanu (but honestly, who else would it have been?), Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4 and Batman in DC League of Super-Pets. Now he gets to leave his stamp on one of the most popular characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog mythology, with Shadow having been introduced in the 2001 video game Sonic Adventure 2.
While Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now lined up as Reeves’ next movie, it’s not the only one he has on the way. Summer 2025 will see him reprising John Wick for the franchise’s Ballerina spinoff, which takes place between the third and fourth of the main films. He’s also starring in the comedies Good Fortune (where he suffered a major injury) and Outcome, neither of which have release dates yet.
News of Keanu Reeves’ casting comes a few weeks after Sonic the Hedgehog 3 wrapped filming, and director Jeff Fowler fittingly commemorated its end with a Shadow tease. Seeing Shadow in suspended animation is one thing, but now that we know that Reeves is voicing the character, I’m more keen on seeing how he looks moving around and talking in a live-action setting. Hopefully the first Sonic 3 trailer will drop sometime so we can get a taste of what to expect from him.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 races into theaters on December 20, and don’t forget that along with Knuckles, Paramount+ is also the streaming home of the two previous movies. We’ll pass along any other interesting news items on the threequel as they come in.