Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Trailer Shows Off the Film’s Take on Chao Garden in All Its Glory

As promised by an Easter egg in a secret Sega Genesis cartridge we tooled around with last week, the latest trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has landed. It’s quite the ride, too, showing off more shenanigans from Dr. Robotnik and Dr. Robotnik’s nearly identical-looking grandfather, plenty of Sonic v. Shadow action, and my favorite: the Chao Garden.

The trailer opens there, in Chao Garden, but it’s not what fans of Sonic Adventure 2 might expect. Instead of being a breeding ground and playground for adorable Chao, Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s Chao Garden is a kiddie restaurant seemingly akin to a Chuck E. Cheese. Children are running around, and a band made up of people dressed as Chao perform on a stage. The opening banter is a riot for fans of video game films and silly crossover references, with a pair of kids mocking Tails for looking like… Detective Pikachu.

The rest of the trailer is far more focused on Keanu Reeves’ Shadow himself, who we see at different points skating around, battling Sonic, and in what seem to be flashback sequences encountering the human girl, Maria. We also get a longer look at Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik and his grandad, also named Dr. Robotnik and also played by Jim Carrey. Two Eggmans, who’d’ve thought?

There are a number of other little tidbits in here. Shadow has a gun at one point, we see a glimpse of Shibuya suggesting some globe-trotting shenanigans, and the trailer ends with a Christmas scene. Fitting, given the film’s release date.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hits theaters on December 20. We’re pretty excited, given that the first two films have been fairly solid. In the meantime, you can revisit the original Chao Garden in the excellent Sonic Adventure 2, and lament with me that Sega has never brought that mechanic back in any capacity.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.