Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Writers on Jim Carrey's Two Roles, Keanu Reeves Voicing Shadow and That Big Ending
Pat Casey and Josh Miller also give a Violent Night 2 update.
Video game adaptation Sonic the Hedgehog has turned into a hugely successful movie franchise, with the just-released Sonic the Hedgehog 3 opening with a $62 million domestic opening weekend, not to mention the best reviews the films have gotten so far. This is an assessment I very much agree with, since I said in my review that I also think it’s the best Sonic movie yet.
Behind the scenes, the creative team behind the Sonic films has remained impressively durable, with Jeff Fowler directing all three installments so far from scripts each time by Pat Casey & Josh Miller. As Sonic 3 hit theaters, I had an in-depth conversation with Casey and Miller about their process of writing a major franchise film of this sort. We spoke about bringing in the character Shadow and Keanu Reeves ultimately voicing him, and the continuing balance between pleasing the hardcore video game fans and making sure the movie is accessible to a general audience - including myself, who has never played a Sonic game.
Sonic 3 gives the biggest role yet to Jim Carrey, returning as Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Well, two roles, since this time Carrey also portrays Robotnik’s grandfather, Gerald. The dynamic between the two puts the younger Robotnik in a more vulnerable spot, letting Carrey add some surprising layers to a character this big and wacky. As Casey put it, about Carrey’s portrayal, “He's like this evil megalomaniac, but he always sort of was projecting this kind of broken little boy inside. His little speech about being an orphan in [Sonic] 1 - it just felt like there was a lot of vulnerability in there that we hadn't tapped into yet, and this was a great opportunity to really explore it, which we knew would be funny. But also a way to get to some real emotional stuff with him that probably no one was ever expecting to get.”
The duo also explained the complexity of delivering the story points game fans want but sometimes changing up some specifics to best serve the medium, which here includes having Gerald — who is a character from past events in the games — returning in the present, mixing him into the storyline about Shadow the Hedgehog’s return.
As Miller noted, “There's only so much time we're ever going to be able to devote to telling just his story in a movie where we also have Sonic and our other heroes and Tom and Maddie and Robotnik. So I think bringing [Gerald] into the present and allowing part of his story to be part of Ivo’s story really just helped reinforce the elements that fans would want from all of that from the games.”
On top of that, we also chatted about the current status of Violent Night 2, the sequel to the Casey and Miller-penned film from 2022 starring David Harbour as a notably fight-ready Santa Claus. They also shared their thoughts on the continuing legacy of “Ugly Sonic,” the ill-fated early design of Sonic that was redesigned after fan outcry following the original Sonic movie’s first trailer.
All that, plus they dive into the ending of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which has some major developments occur (the spoiler chat is from 14:10-18:40 if you want to skip it).
Check out the full interview below: