If you didn’t feel like heading into a theater to see it, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now out on digital platforms to watch from the comfort of your own home. The digital release includes some behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes, and while they’re not as consequential as the cut moments from something like Wicked, they do reveal an entire plotline that is no longer in the movie. They also explain one line that’s still in the film that doesn’t make much sense without all the scenes it was referencing.
Originally, Jim Carrey’s burnt-out version of the mad scientist Doctor Eggman was going to be moonlighting as a live streamer. Having been bested by Sonic and friends twice in the previous films, the Egghead was going to have pivoted to talking to his adoring fans and promoting energy drinks that were probably not good for you.
There are two scenes that would have had Eggman interrupting the plot to stream to his followers. They contain some funny gags, such as Agent Stone enthusiastically spamming heart emojis on his boss’ stream because he’s clearly in love with him, but still, it’s easy to see why these scenes were cut. In the context of the already busy movie, they likely would have just interrupted the flow and momentum of the action, and frankly, there’s already plenty of Carrey’s antics to go around (maybe too much). But seeing them now does contextualize one line that still made it into the final movie during Carrey’s final monologue.
At the end of the film, Eggman sacrifices himself to save Earth as he helps Shadow move the self-destructing Eclipse Cannon out of the planet’s orbit. But before he does, the doctor streams a goodbye message to Agent Stone after carelessly tossing him aside earlier in the movie. When he does so, he opens the stream with “This is Dr. Ivo Robotnik dedicating my final live stream to one very special henchman: Agent Stone.”
The use of the word “final” implies that there were others which, in the finished film, seems a little odd because we hadn’t seen Eggman streaming prior to this moment. While it makes sense that these scenes were deleted, the real shame is that we didn’t get to see Agent Stone yearning and nursing Eggman back to health after the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Stobotnik shippers are not taking it well, but at least we’re seeing it now thanks to the digital release.
These scenes are fun to see, but the most interesting behind-the-scenes content coming out of Paramount right now are the new pieces of concept art which may have answered some of the lingering questions from Sonic 3’s post-credits scene.