The Year Of Shadow The Hedgehog

I expected 2024 to be a big year for Sonic’s beloved antihero, Shadow the Hedgehog. He was going to be the villain in the series’ next live-action movie, after all. However, what I didn’t expect was for Sega to make an entire event out of finally giving the brooding black hedgehog his due.

In April, Sega announced that 2024 would be the Year of Shadow. This included a dedicated merch line, in-person events, mobile game crossovers, an animated mini-series, and a new game starring Shadow packaged in with a Sonic Generations remaster. All of this culminated in Keanu Reeves starring as Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which opened up at #1 at the U.S. box office

Sega had done Shadow dirty for nearly 20 years. After the series made a hard pivot away from its ensemble cast to focus mostly on Sonic and his inner circle, Shadow had become a bit player in most games. Seeing Sega do right by him and make such a grand spectacle of it was easily one of the biggest surprises for Sonic fans this year. And hey, it looks like he’ll be part of the live-action movies in the future as well, so Sega can’t just abandon him again. – Kenneth Shepard