Sonic the Hedgehog 3‘s Colleen O’Shaughnessey speaks about whether the Sonic team is likely to make a franchise movie without any of the human characters. O’Shaughnessey is the voice of Tails in the Sonic movies, beginning her role in earnest in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 after Tails briefly appeared in the first movie’s mid-credits sequence. In addition to O’Shaughnesssey, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 features an ensemble cast including Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba, James Marsden, and Krysten Ritter. The movie received positive reviews and is doing well in theaters.

In an interview with ScreenRant for the digital release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on January 21, O’Shaughnessey discusses the likelihood that a Sonic movie without any of the main characters will be made. While the actor noted that making a non-human only Sonic movie is possible, she thinks that “they did such a great job balancing the two” in the most recent installment. As such, she thinks that the future Sonic movies will continue to include both human and non-human characters while adding more characters. Check out the full quote from O’Shaughnesssey below:

Colleen O’Shaughnessey: I mean, is it possible? Absolutely. You could do something with just the characters in this world. But I feel like this last movie, they did such a great job of balancing the two, so if they continue on their pattern, my guess is they’ll continue to do that. I think it does lend something to it. It definitely takes it out of a video game, and really helps ground it into a more real world situation, if that makes sense. So, like I said, I feel like they really did a great job of balancing, and could they keep adding more and more characters? For sure, there’s definitely enough characters to go around. But I think they’ll keep it with both. But what do I know? They don’t tell me anything. [Chuckles]

What This Means For Sonic The Hedgehog 4

The Sonic Movies Have Decreased Human Screen Time Over Time

The discussion about making a Sonic movie with no human characters comes after the humans had a lot less screen time in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 than in previous movies, prompting whether future installments will include human characters at all. Even if O’Shaughnessey herself reports not knowing anything, the decision about human characters in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 will have to be made pretty swiftly. The movie is already confirmed to be in development, with a tentative release window of Spring 2027.

The existing Sonic the Hedgehog movies’ flashiest human character is Dr. Robotnik. This character, however, died during the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ending, which leaves Sonic the Hedgehog 4 with a great window of opportunity to decide whether to phase out the human characters. It would have been hard to make a movie without Robotnik, but his death makes it such that audiences might not miss a human presence as much on screen.

Our Take On Sonic’s Potential Non-Human Only Characters

The Live-Action CGI Hybrid Formula Is Iconic To The Film Franchise

Whether Robotnik is really ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, given the reversal of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ending, is one reason to doubt whether the franchise would truly go the non-human route. It is also worth noting, however, that Sonic the Hedgehog‘s live-action and CGI-hybrid formula has been a critical element of the series. As such, taking away the humans would take away the need for the live-action element, potentially making it weird for Sonic to continue in the same medium. For that reason alone, it may make sense for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 to keep its humans.