How Sonic the Hedgehog 3 became a box office powerhouse: 'We really levelled up'

Ben Schwartz, James Marsden and director Jeff Fowler discuss making the latest instalment featuring the beloved video game character

Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba), Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) are three animated characters who have each made successful jumps from video game to the films. Photo: ParamounShow more

It can be hard to explain the popularity of Sonic the Hedgehog to the uninitiated. Sure, the character has fronted one of the most popular video game series running since 1991, but over the past three decades, it’s become so much bigger. Across film, television, comics and more, the blue alien speedster has built one of the most passionate fanbases for any media property – not to mention one of the most formidable.

That much was clear this week, when Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the latest film in the franchise, which will be released in Middle East cinemas on Thursday, dominated the US holiday box office in its opening weekend, earning more than double the domestic gross of the second-place film, Mufasa: The Lion King. It’s the latest staggering win for a property that continues to defy expectations, with the first two films also doing surprisingly big business in 2020 and 2022 respectively.

“It feels like I’m part of something special, and I can feel it getting bigger,” actor and comedian Ben Schwartz, who plays Sonic in the films, tells The National. “I was walking around in the Los Angeles Zoo yesterday, and there was a kid dressed up as Sonic, a kid dressed up as Shadow, a kid dressed up as Knuckles. There were kids with Sonic hats and Sonic backpacks. It feels massive for the next generation.”

“To think that I’m the way that these kids are being introduced to Sonic, when these games were my entire life growing up is hard to fathom. I feel so lucky. And honestly I’m just glad that when my mom and dad meet somebody and ask what does your kid does, they say, ‘have you heard of Sonic the Hedgehog?’ they say yes far more often than they did when they’d say, ‘have you heard of stand-up comedy?’”

It's easy to see why Schwartz feels so bowled over by Sonic the Hedgehog’s current success considering how this journey began for him. Six years ago, Schwartz offered to do the test voice for the character while the studio worked on early footage, expecting to be replaced by another actor for the final release. But the filmmakers liked him so much they gave him the role.

“I just liked the franchise,” Schwartz reflects. “I said, ‘yeah, I’ll do it for you guys. If you use me, great. If not, at least I got to tell everybody that I tested for Sonic. And then I got it, and the movie ended up being so big. To think I get to keep getting on this ride is crazy to me.”

While the series has grown to now include many of the game's popular characters such as Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey), Knuckles (Idris Elba) and Shadow (Keanu Reeves), the films have been grounded in the chemistry between Schwartz and his human friend Tom Wachowski, played by James Marsden (X-Men, The Notebook, Enchanted).

Because Marsden films the live-action sequences and Schwartz’s voice is recorded later before the animated Sonic is added, the two never actually spend time together on set. While usually in the film world this would mean the two actors never interact, the two take it upon themselves to collaborate after-hours, getting on Zoom and phone calls to iron out the scenes.

“We have long heart to hearts. For serious scenes, Ben and I will get on the phone and say, ‘how do we make this really effective, and earnest without being overly earnest? And what would you think if I did this or this?’” says Marsden. “I feel like we figured out a way of feeling really connected, even though we’re so disconnected.”

Schwartz doesn’t have that kind of relationship with all his cast members, though. In the case of Reeves, who joins the cast for the third film as Shadow the Hedgehog, a hugely popular character who joined the game franchise with Sonic Adventure 2 in 2001, he was improvising with an actor he never met.

“Often times, I’ll record my lines, and then I’ll hear Keanu do his lines, and then I’ll go back and improvise a bit off of what Keanu has done. I’m very curious what’s going to happen when I’m finally in the room with John Wick,” says Schwartz. “I’m hoping I get the chance to sit next to him and hear Keanu tell stories all day.”

The on-set experience has also evolved over the three films. On the first, Sonic was just a tennis ball on set the cast had to talk to, Tika Sumpter, who plays Tom’s wife Maddie, explains. By the third, they had puppeteers who would act with them in the scene and be edited out later.

“We really levelled up in this movie,” says Sumpter. “The puppeteers made it feel more real and made us more present, as they were right in front of us.”

And while the assortment of animal characters may each have earned cult followings that fuel the franchise’s rise, the secret weapon of the film series has been Jim Carrey, who plays the villainous Dr Robotnik. During the press tour for the second film, Carrey announced he planned on retiring, which struck a major blow to future plans.

“It was emotional. Not only were we losing one of the greatest comedic actors of all time, we were also losing a core character,” says Schwartz. “But his legacy has been cemented for decades. He’s earned the right to stop whenever he wants. We just are so lucky he took the risk to do this with us from the beginning, because we had no idea what this movie was going to be.”

Luckily, director Jeff Fowler was able to entice Carrey back into the fold.

“We’ve always treated Robotnik as if he’s an orphan with a chip on his shoulder. But we wondered, what if a grandfather just walked out of the shadows? How would that change him? I think that was really interesting to Jim, as it was for all of us,” says Fowler. “And it ended up proving to be a big challenge for him, as he took on both roles and had to play two sides of the same scene. It was a tremendous amount of work, but Jim is a phenomenal talent.”

And it seems that, after three films, this franchise is just getting started. The third film ends by upping the ante even more than the last two, setting up bigger things in the fourth film and beyond.

“I hope we get another one. Because I can tell you this – it’s going to be bananas,” says Schwartz.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be released in cinemas across the Middle East on Thursday