While Sonic the Hedgehog movies have decades of material to draw from, they haven’t been shy about sneaking memes into some scenes for the delight of their fanbase.
Though the references could be silly cutaways, it’s been confirmed that they snuck one of the racier memes into the third movie—specifically, the one about Shadow the Hedgehog loving Latinas.
Shadow Loves Latinas
As some fans have noticed in the director's commentary, the filmmakers were able to sneak the meme of Shadow loving Latinas into Sonic 3. The scene specifically has Shadow commenting on a Spanish soap opera where he comments on the lead woman, saying, “She’s not some prize to be won.”
This refers to the rising meme in the Sonic fandom about Shadow having a thing for Latinas. It started around 2023-2024, and this video was able to amass more than 5M views:
Other Memes in the Sonic Franchise
If anything, this meme reference is probably one of the most blatant that’s ever happened in the franchise. The first movie had a very small blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo of “Sanic,” which showed up as a poorly remembered drawing of Sonic.
The second movie referenced the ‘Ugandan Knuckles,’ a meme where Dr. Robotnik tells Knuckles that he can show him ‘The Way.’ For context, one of Ugandan Knuckles’ several catchphrases was about him asking people if ‘dey know da wae.’
It was actually kind of wild that the movie would manage to reference the meme since it became a target of several online discussions about whether it was racist, with some calling it the new ‘Pepe the Frog’ hate symbol (which a lot of fans say wasn’t the case).
What Memes Could Be Referenced in Sonic 4?
With the movies going 3 for 3 when it comes to meme easter eggs, all the fans are discussing what could be referenced next. With Metal Sonic expected to show up in the next movie, some have suggested that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 could find a way to reference a bootleg doll of Metal Sonic that had been making the rounds online:
Some are even hoping that the creepypasta “Sonic.exe” gets a mention since Metal Sonic could say that if he was plugged into a computer or something.
Either way, the Sonic the Hedgehog filmmakers seem to have a very good handle on their fanbase. Their minimal pandering is probably what made the movie so successful at the box office. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has managed to amass a billion in worldwide gross—the highest of the three films.
Nobody knows how long this Sonic train will run, but fans could be looking forward to a new movie every 2-3 years.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 aims for a release around the Spring of 2027.