Jim Carrey Is Playing Two Robotniks In Sonic 3 And That’s Important

Now I know what you’re probably thinking: Sonic the Hedgehog has lore? As weird as it sounds, yes. The Blue Blur’s games follow a canon storyline, and it’s pretty involved.

The movies follow their own story, so we can only guess how essential Jim Carrey’s elder Robotnik is to the plot. With Sonic the Hedgehog 3 introducing Shadow the Hedgehog, we can only assume Gerald will play a fairly significant role. Gerald Robotnik is Shadow’s father, after all.

Not by blood, of course. Instead, Gerald Robotnik’s relationship with Shadow resembles that of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster.

According to Sonic game lore, Gerald created Shadow the Hedgehog to be the “ultimate lifeform.” With Shadow, Gerald hoped to discover the secret of immortality to save his terminally ill granddaughter, Maria.

The trailer, however, establishes Shadow as an “alien” like Sonic and Tales. Consequently, Jim Carrey’s Gerald Robotnik will probably have a different backstory than his video game counterpart.

However, Maria does make an appearance in the trailer, indicating that Robotnik will still have a significant connection to Shadow.

Our guess is that instead of creating Shadow in this universe, Gerald did experiments on him to make him more powerful. Either way, the end result is the same: a dark, edge lord hedgehog with godlike abilities.

With the trailer showing Jim Carrey’s original Dr. Robotnik joining Team Sonic, there’s a good chance Grandpa will be the film’s villain.

If Gerald does turn out to be evil in the Sonic movie timeline, chances are it’s for the same reason he does in the games: the death of Maria.

Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) explained how the government, trying to stop Gerald’s work with Shadow, accidentally killed Maria Robotnik during a botched raid.

Robotnik went insane as a result and vowed to destroy the world. While Maria’s death will no doubt be heartbreaking, a mad Gerald Robotnik will allow Jim Carrey to do what he does best. Expect a lot of over-the-top scenery chewing.

Meanwhile, Sonic 3 is already forging a new path by having Jim Carrey’s two Robotniks meet. Gerald Robotnik died well before the events of the Sonic video games.

As a result, who knows what to expect from the two Robotniks? Will the younger Robotnik screw Sonic over and team up with his grandfather? We’re not a magic 8 ball but we’d offer up an enthusiastic “All signs point to yes,” if we were.

Jim Carrey’s version of Robotnik is essentially a live-action cartoon villain, after all. And if decades of watching cartoons have taught us anything, it’s that after the obligatory villain/hero team up the bad guy always goes back to being evil. We won’t know for sure until Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hits theaters later this year.