Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer inspires gay Sonic and Shadow fan art
Sonic the Hedgehog fans are doing exactly what you’d expect to the Sonic 3 Movie poster. (Twitter/X)
The upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has prompted renewed interest from LGBTQ+ fans about an imagine romance between Sonic and nemesis Shadow.
A trailer for the third instalment in the action-adventure film adaptations – the first to feature Shadow the Hedgehog: Sonic’s edgy arch-nemesis and doppelganger – was released on Tuesday (27 August) to mass acclaim from fans.
Alongside the trailer, Paramount Pictures released the official poster, which shows the pair racing down a building, with the trail behind them forming the number three. Fans immediately started making joke mock-ups, including one of Sonic and Shadow making out.
Some fans were left bewildered by the “fever dream” of a poster mock-up, while others admitted they “would watch” a version of the movie with a same-sex hedgehog romance.
“Me and the homies watching Sonic 3,” one fan joked, while another sarcastically wrote: “This is real, this is 100 per cent canon, Ben Schwartz [who voices Sonic] and Keanu Reeves [Shadow] told me.”
The modified poster won’t surprise anyone aware of the Sonic the Hedgehog community, with the two characters being the fandom’s favourites to ship.
Shipping refers to a community’s desire for two characters who are not canonically in a relationship to become romantically involved. The act usually involves fan-fiction being written.
The fan-fiction archive AO3 currently has 4,580 works that ship Sonic and Shadow, while there are 24,395 Sonic stories overall.
Who is Shadow the Hedgehog?
Shadow the Hedgehog first appeared in the video game Sonic Adventure 2, for the SEGA Dreamcast.
Born on the Space Colony Ark – a research station orbiting Earth – Shadow was created by scientists as a way to achieve immortality and find the cure for all known illnesses.
He is Sonic’s nemesis, resembling him in many ways, and can match his speed and agility. His cinematic counterpart first appeared in Sonic Adventure 2 and seems to share much of the video game character’s origin story, although how much of this will feature in the new film is being kept under wraps for now.
A poll from SEGA Japan revealed that Shadow is the second-most-popular character in the Sonic universe, unsurprisingly below the blue blur himself.
While he was originally meant to be killed off in Sonic Adventure 2, his popularity was so great that he returned in the subsequent mainline video game Sonic Heroes and went on to have his own spin-off title.
The new film will also feature the voices of Idris Elba, Jim Carrey and X-Men favourite James Marsden and is due in cinemas at the end of the year.
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