Interview: Jeff Fowler breaks down Sonic 3's toughest challenge

Jeff Fowler, director of the increasingly successful Sonic The Hedgehog films, confessed Maria and Shadow’s backstory was the biggest hurdle in the latest film’s production.

As a fan of the games I’ve been increasingly impressed with the live-action Sonic films, not only in how they’ve adapted the source material but also the new additions they’ve brought to the Sonic world.

See the trailer for the latest and greatest film in the trilogy, Sonic The Hedgehog 3, below

Recently I sat down with the film’s director, Jeff Fowler, for a brief chat on what it’s been like putting these films together, and of course how much road is left for Sonic to run down on the big-screen.

“It's flown,” Jeff tells me.“Honestly, my memories of the first movie are so fresh and of really just trying to establish these characters in this world. Now it feels like we're really kind of hitting our stride, and Shadow is such an exciting entry into our characters. And of course, what Keanu brought to the character was so incredible and so great to see everyone around the world just go crazy for it.

“From my standpoint, it's like movies are all about character. As long as you have interesting characters that the audience is showing up to spend time with and experience stories with, then I think you're in great shape. And there’s something in these 30+ years of Sonic The Hedgehog, there's so many amazing characters I mean, that I think would give anybody enough gas to be making movies for a long time.”

Something I’ve particularly admired about the films is how it’s taken 30+ years of Sonic history and adapted it in a way that none only works on the big-screen, but still functions in terms of plot. Take the Chaos Emeralds as an example, in the games Sonic would collect all seven individually but that’d take too much time in a film so keeping them all inside the Master Emerald was a smart idea.

It was for this reason I was particularly eager to see how they’d take Maria Robotnik and her story, and adapt it in a way that’s both appropriate for the big-screen but still serves as a motivator for Shadow, and of course an emotional pull for the audience.

“You just identified the biggest challenge in that entire sort of scripting and storytelling stage,” says Jeff.

“With Shadow and Maria knowing that was such an important part of the movie, and the most important part of Shadow’s introduction, in order to understand why he's doing what he's doing, and you have to understand where he's coming from, what he's been through and so presenting that story, but also just being mindful, you know, of our PG films, of our the family audience that might not come in and know anything about any of it. So it was very tricky, because, you know, the fans, the hardcore fans, we know we had to do right by them, but also continue in the spirit of the films that have come before.”

Fortunately it all worked out, and Shadow and Maria’s story is arguably the best part of the film aside from the finale…

The Sonic Cinematic Universe is nowhere near its grand-finale though, as Sonic The Hedgehog 3 sports two post-credit scenes, the second of which I didn’t actually see on my first watch so that made the second much more exciting.

There are two post credit scenes in Sonic 3. The first one kind of hints at where the next film is going, and the second teases scope for further spinoffs. Can we expect to see an ever expanding universe of spinoffs, like Knuckles?

“We had a great time making Knuckles,” Jeff says. “Knuckles was introduced in Sonic 2. Everybody loved him. Everybody wanted more of him, and we wanted to do more with him. And knowing that, as the films move forward, and more characters get introduced, you know, then everyone is kind of jockeying for screen time a little bit, only because the more characters you have, it's just a little bit more of a juggling act.

“There hasn't really been any official sort of plans made about next steps, you know, in terms of movies and TV shows and all of that. But it's great to look back and say we've made three films and a TV show, and everyone you know on our side has loved making them, so it just is going to be a conversation on figuring out what the next steps are.”

There’s 30+ years of Sonic history to still play with, spanning so many different medias too. Personally, the next set of characters on my big-screen wishlist are The Chaotix, who I’d love to see introduced during a second season of Knuckles if one is on the cards…

Regardless, the Sonic Cinematic Universe is looking brighter than ever, and with Sonic 4 already confirmed to be coming out in 2027 there’s already plenty to look forward to.