Sonic 3 Director Jeff Fowler Celebrates Shadow the Hedgehog’s Legacy with Nostalgic Easter Eggs

If you examine the credits of the 2005 title Shadow the Hedgehog, you may notice a familiar name: Jeff Fowler – the director of all three Sonic films – was part of the CG Movie Production team for this iconic platformer. Now, he is honoring his experience with the game by incorporating scenes and moments directly from it into Sonic 3.

“We integrated some of those elements [from Shadow the Hedgehog] into the sequences,” Fowler told GamesRadar+.

While you may have to wait for Sonic 3 to debut in theaters to see exactly how it reflects the 2005 game, Fowler revealed that the “initial piece of fight choreography” featuring Keanu Reeves’ Shadow in the threequel is “quite similar” to a segment where the Heroic Lifeform battles the Dark Hands soldiers within the game’s cinematics.

Additionally, there was a specific scene from Shadow the Hedgehog’s introductory video that Fowler was eager to recreate for the big screen.

“There’s a moment that I believe is quite iconic from Shadow the Hedgehog where you see Sonic struggling on his knees before collapsing, which then reveals Shadow standing behind him. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s such an amazing shot. We must pay homage to that in the film.’ So we executed a nearly direct reference to that camera movement.”

Reflecting on his time with the Shadow the Hedgehog team two decades ago, Fowler shared, “I had a fantastic time working on the game and its cinematics. Here’s this little fierce hedgehog who rides a motorcycle, can teleport, and carries a submachine gun… Now, 20 years later, to be adapting this for the big screen – it’s phenomenal.”

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is set to hit theaters.