Oh sweet baby Jesus, do we really need to go back to 2005 and listen to My Chemical Romance? Despite Nintendo declaring it to be the year of Luigi, Sega is firing up the old rivalry by declaring that it is the Year of Shadow… the Hedgehog – thanks lads, I’m sure the Chinese dragon is crying. Despite first appearing in Sonic Adventures 2 alongside the titular hedgehog, the red mascara-wearing Bill Oddie hunter didn’t get his guns out until 2005 with the self-titled solo debut. Niche jokes and 2005’s emo phase aside, the Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel put out a video titled “Fearless,” with that later being subtitled Year of Shadow.

Alongside the already announced Sonic X Shadow Generations remaster of the 2011 game, which wasn’t great. As well as the Shadow the Hedgehog Escape Lego set, released last December. The Sonic Symphony World Tour will include original Shadow scores too, though that World Tour only includes the US and Paris. I know, according to some US schools that practically is the world, but still.

As part of special events for both Sonic Dash and the Sonic Forces mobile game titled Sonic Forces Speed Battle, the Fearless event lets you unlock “powerful Shadow variants such as Super Shadow, Vampire Shadow, Sir Lancelot[,] and Dragon Hunter Lancelot.” If that wasn’t enough, let’s take it back to the 90s when WCW put a Sting livery on a NASCAR, but this time a custom bike on display this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin for MotoGP. Additionally, that Shadow bike will return the weekend of August 4th for the MotoGP British GP at Silverstone. No, it isn’t racing.

As teased several weeks ago on Twitter, we know that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is set to release later this year, provided there aren’t any delays. As teased in that tweet, we now know that Shadow is set to make his return to the story of Sonic Adventures 2 in the film, or at least that’s the speculation of what the story will be based on.

There is no word on who will be playing the red and black hedgehog, but we know Ben Schwartz, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, and Idris Elba are set to return as their respective furry creatures, and so are James Marsden and Jim Carrey. Currently, the film is set to release on December 20th, 2024.

You all thought I was gone, but I’ve just been underground. What you’ve seen from me is only a #shadow of things to come… pic.twitter.com/3W9Rh728Tt

— Sonic the Hedgehog (@SonicMovie) February 2, 2024

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