Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is available on digital platforms today. As such, Paramount has done another marketing push for the movie by releasing concept art of some of the film’s most pivotal moments. The images include what seem to be previous iterations of the movie’s post-credits scene, which was exciting, but a bit confusing. While the moment depicted in the art doesn’t appear in the final film, it still may nevertheless clear up one thing about the post-credits scene fans have been wondering about since the movie premiered in December. Let’s get into what it might mean for the future of the live-action Sonic universe. Spoilers ahead!
Tacit Sign Studio, a concept art studio that has worked with Paramount on the Sonic films before, has released several pieces of art that depict key scenes throughout Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Most of the moments shown in these (gorgeous) pieces made their way into the final film, such as Sonic and Shadow fighting as their super forms in space, Ivo and Gerald Robotnik duking it out inside the Eclipse Cannon, and Sonic’s family roasting marshmallows before G.U.N. comes to ask for their help stopping Shadow. But a few of them show scenes that were either cut from the film, or heavily altered for it. This includes two pieces that depict the characters introduced in the post-credits scene: Amy Rose and Metal Sonic.
The art of Amy closely resembles her introduction in the final movie. She’s shown wielding her hammer and taking down what looks like one of Eggman’s giant robots, seemingly saving Sonic from the threat. This is basically how she appears in the movie, except instead of taking down a giant, mostly non-descript robot, she saves Sonic from a squad of his metal doppelgangers. The art of Metal Sonic, however, is unlike anything seen in the final film. We see the robot standing guard next to Eggman, who is adorned in an extravagant red-and-gold robe and wielding a golden staff. In the background, we can see that the world behind him appears to have been desecrated, implying that Eggman and Metal Sonic have conquered it.
Notably, this image may clear up a question fans have had about Metal Sonic’s origins since Sonic 3 premiered. Metal Sonic does seem to have been created by Eggman, but perhaps not the one we’ve followed for three movies. Fans have been speculating that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 may take place in a far-flung future, and that Sonic may have broken the time barrier at the end of the third movie. Amy’s hooded vigilante outfit, seen in the post-credits scene, is evocative of a hero who is on the run from some kind of police-state-level force. There’s also the possibility that Sonic, rather than moving forward in time, may have instead shifted to an alternate timeline in which Eggman is still alive and perhaps didn’t have the change of heart shown at the end of Sonic 3.
It’s also possible this concept art tells us nothing about the movie that’s coming and is instead just a scrapped idea the team was toying with. But at the very least, this is the most concrete clue we’ve been given about Metal Sonic’s origins in the movies. It looks like he’s tied to Eggman in some way, even if the good doctor is supposedly gone. We’ll know more as we get closer to Sonic 4’s release in 2027, but for now, we have more to speculate on than that incredibly vague post-credits scene.