With Shadow the Hedgehog out of the way, the Sonic franchise is now gearing up for the next big bad, and the mid-credits of Sonic 3 reveal the arrival of not just one but a whole army of Metal Sonics.
Metal Sonic has had quite the history in the games, so who exactly is he, and why is he such a huge threat to Sonic and his friends?
Who is Metal Sonic?
Metal Sonic was introduced in 1993 in Sonic the Hedgehog CD, the third Sonic game in the timeline. He was considered one of Robotnik’s best creations and was created solely to mock Sonic’s entire existence.
Sonic is supposed to be a living creature that moves fast and has a lot of heart, but Metal Sonic is the complete opposite. He is a fast, unfeeling machine, but where a heart should be, there’s an empty hole.
Originally, Metal Sonic was introduced to help Robotnik take over Little Planet, and he would kidnap Amy Rose (who appears alongside him in the mid-credits scene for Sonic 3). Metal Sonic would then race Sonic in the Stardust Speedway—ultimately losing to Sonic and getting destroyed by his own creator.
Metal Sonic in the Movies
Metal Sonic has repeatedly shown up in several games and series with Sonic and was facing off with Sonic way before Shadow the Hedgehog was introduced. With Shadow’s arc being complete, fans are now wondering just how the films will tackle Metal Sonic.
For one, there is only one Metal Sonic in the games, and he is pretty much the equivalent of the real Sonic in terms of his speed abilities. In the movie, though, it’s revealed that there’s an army of Metal Sonics, but Amy Rose easily takes them out with her signature weapon, the Piko Piko Hammer.
With some thinking that time travel will be an integral element of the fourth movie, there are hopes that Sonic 4 will also introduce Silver the Hedgehog to the movie canon. In the lore, Silver is essentially the Trunks of the franchise, going back in time to stop some terrible event in the past from affecting his present.
With each movie introducing a creature that Sonic has to fight and befriend, introducing Silver would be a good subversion of the trope this time around because he would start as an ally. Besides, it’s time that Sonic got a villain that was just bad to the bone. Even Robotnik ended up teaming up with Sonic in the third movie.
Gotta Go Fast
While no official details about a fourth Sonic the Hedgehog movie have been released, the sequel has already been given the green light.
Despite being aimed directly at kids, it’s astounding that the Sonic movies are doing as well as they are. Fans almost forget that there was a good chunk of time when every video game adaptation was just cinematic garbage; now they have Sonic, The Last of Us, Fallout, and a bunch of other fantastic video game adaptations to check out.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now showing in theatres. No release date has been set for Sonic 4.