SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers about the ending and post-credits scene in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” now playing in theaters.
Just like the ending of the first two “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies, the third installment sets up the fourth movie — coming to theaters in 2027 — with a surprise cameo.
After Team Sonic saves the world from Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his grandfather Gerald Robotnik (both played by Jim Carrey), Sonic (Ben Schwartz) finishes his race with Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba) to find out who’s the fastest. The blue hedgehog easily wins the race as he speeds far ahead of his buddies and finds himself lost in the dark woods. Things quickly take a turn when Sonic finds himself surrounded by a squad of robots that look exactly like him. The robots’ designs are based on Metal Sonic, an evil android created by Dr. Robotnik in the video games. Metal Sonic is one of Robotnik’s most elite creations with all the powers of Sonic and more, like super-strength, invisibility, chaos powers and self-replication.
Luckily, as the Metal Sonics close in on the hero, he’s saved by a cloaked figure who turns out to be the fan-favorite character Amy Rose. Just like Tails and Shadow (Keanu Reeves) were teased at the ends of the first two “Sonic” movies, it’s clear that Amy will play a major role in “Sonic 4.” Amy is a pink hedgehog and often portrayed as Sonic’s love interest. While she doesn’t have Sonic’s speed or Knuckles’ strength, she wields a giant hammer that can easily defeat any foe.
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What about Shadow and the Robotniks? Well, they all appear to meet their demises in the final battle aboard the giant space canon. After he’s betrayed by his grandfather, Ivo pushes Gerald into the energy reactor, and then he and Shadow sacrifice themselves to move the laser away from Earth. The space base explodes with all of them on it — but it wouldn’t be the first time Ivo miraculously survives apparent death. Ivo also came back after disappearing at the end of “Sonic 2. However, the final post-credits scene confirms that Shadow survived the explosion and flies back to Earth, setting him up to appear in “Sonic 4.”
Schwartz was tight-lipped about what “Sonic 4” may include, but teased that it’ll be “beautiful” and different than the previous three films.
“The exact things we tease at the end of this film is the exact thing I hope we would do for the fourth. There is a beautiful storyline that can be used, and it takes our movie in a whole different place,” he said. “That’s what makes these exciting. Every one of these movies almost feels like a different genre. The first one’s kind of a buddy comedy. The second one’s kind of like an adventure, “Indiana Jones” movie. This one brings the darkness in Shadow, and the next one can have a totally different vibe. It’s just heaven. Also we can get incredible people to play new characters and stuff like that, which is very exciting.”