Keanu Reeves joins 'Sonic 3,' will voice the villain Shadow

The “John Wick” star will voice the black hedgehog who first appeared in the video game “Sonic Adventure 2.”

Keanu Reeves will join the third installment of Sonic, titled "Sonic 3," and will voice the villain Shadow. The actor from the "John Wick" film saga will thus voice the animated character who is the is one of the nemeses of the famous blue hedgehog who appeared for the first time in the video game released in 2001, "Sonic Adventure 2."

Produced by Paramount Pictures, the film will continue right where the second installment left off and will feature, as The Hollywood Reporter reported, a depressed Dr. Eggman (played by Jim Carrey), who doesn't quite know how to defeat the blue hedgehog (voiced by Ben Schwartz).

CinemaCon to debut first teaser of 'Sonic 3'

However, after a moment of weakness, the scientist creates Shadow the Hedgehog, the character voiced by Keanu Reeves. This is, in many ways, the anti-Sonic, since he is dark in color, tense in character and, over time, as can be seen in the video game that introduced the character, it is discovered that he has the same powers as his blue counterpart.

The third installment of the Sonic film saga will once again feature Jeff Fowler as director. Also returning will be Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, Toru Nakahara and Hitoshi Okuno. They will produce this new film that is scheduled to hit the big screen on Dec. 20 of this year.

This new movie has a challenge ahead of it, since it must live up to the previous films. These installments, Variety recalls, managed to earn a total of $725.2 million, making it one of Paramount's most successful franchises. The studio even ordered the creation of a spin-off series, "Knuckles," whose first season will premiere on Friday, April 26.