The Sonic the Hedgehog films have had a significant problem with power creep, but the next upcoming film in the franchise might finally fix this. As they’ve progressed, the Sonic the Hedgehog movies have slowly added more and more iconic characters from the beloved games, while also adding their own original human characters.

The first movie kept things simple, introducing the farfetched concept of interdimensional talking alien animals with powers finding their way to Earth. Sonic himself is the only character with powers in the first movie, beyond a small cameo from Tails, though Jim Carrey’s Eggman gives him a run for his money.

The Sonic Movies Couldn’t Help But Keep Introducing Yet More Powerful Characters

From Knuckles To Shadow

In the second film, Knuckles is the next classic game character introduced, along with tails returning from his post-credits scene. This began to establish an order of strength for Sonic characters, with all three space animals testing their powers against one another along with Eggman’s new cybernetic creations.

This was the first major step towards “power creep”, or the idea of introducing yet more and more powerful characters to keep the universe interesting, to the franchise. The new wrinkle of the Chaos Emerald further adds to the chaos, debuting the form of Super Sonic and Eggman’s enhanced form.

Finally, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 shook up the status quo of the three powerful creatures living on Earth in the franchise with the introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog. One of the most powerful beings at play in the series yet, Shadow is also introduced alongside Gerald Robotnik, Eggman’s grandfather and the inventor of a world-ending weapon.

Amy Rose Broke The Trend Of Sonic Movies Introducing Increasingly Powerful Characters

Amy Represents A Welcome Break In Power Creep

However, these two characters aren’t the only new players introduced in the third movie, with the addition of the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 post-credits scene. Here, Sonic finally meets his long-awaited love interest from the games, Amy Rose, clad in pink and swinging her iconic hammer.

Compared to the other new recruits, Amy represents a break in the steady increase of power that can be charted throughout the franchise. While Knuckles and Shadow were both increasingly powerful, Amy is the first actual animal character introduced to be less powerful than the one before.

This could help the franchise avoid the pitfalls of constantly upping the stakes with more and more powerful characters, which could easily leave others unfairly behind. This can already be seen to some degree in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, with human characters like Tom and Maddie having almost nothing to do.

Metal Sonic Might Increase The Power Level Of The Franchise

The Series’ Next Villain Might Further Complicate Things

However, Amy isn’t the only character introduced in the post-credits scene of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Amy comes to save the day when Sonic is attacked by an army of Metal Sonics, smashing them all to pieces with her hammer. Metal Sonic is another iconic villain from the game series, though the scene portrays him as more of a unit in a faceless android army.

In the games, Metal Sonic is the creation of Eggman, one of his most powerful and successful inventions. Metal Sonic is yet another character that would continue the trend of increasingly stronger characters being introduced to the film universe, though his strength is a bit more vague compared to the likes of Shadow.

The Sonic series has the unenviable position of having to translate game mechanics and lore into movie beats, which can sometimes be awkward. For example, in the battle mode of Sonic Adventure 2, Metal Sonic has the Black Shield, which can nullify the effects of any attack outside of Shadow’s Chaos Control.

How this might affect his movie appearance is up in the air, but Metal Sonic has plenty of other gimmicks more tied to the series’ lore. For instance, Metal has the ability to scan and mimic the abilities of any organic life form he encounters, making determining his place in the Sonic cast power hierarchy even more difficult.

Other Possible Characters In Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Could Still Upend The Franchise’s Power Scale

Metal Sonic Isn’t The Only Major Threat Looming On The Horizon

Power creep is bad news for any franchise that relies on climactic action scenes to draw eyes, even if that isn’t the sole appeal of the Sonic the Hedgehog films. Going too hard on the rate at which new characters raise the bar for power can quickly alienate viewers and make the scale of the action lose all meaning.

There are more characters on the horizon that could further complicate things beyond Metal Sonic. Blaze the Cat with her pyrokinesis and the time-traveling Silver the Hedgehog with his telekinesis could also complicate things by being introduced too soon, adding even more major players for Sonic to have to work around.

Luckily, there are just as many characters in the universe that can help reset the stakes back to basics, including Big the Cat, Rogue the Bat, and Team Chaotix, all of whom are mascot characters without absurdly strong powers that would once again redefine the universe. Going forward, the future Sonic the Hedgehog movies should be able to strike a good balance.