Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Post-Credits Scenes, Explained

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 continues the franchise’s tradition of teasing future installments with a post-credits scene. With this film featuring not one, but two, major post-credits scenes, here’s everything you need to know about what they mean and the franchise’s future.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s Mid-Credits Scene, Explained

The first post-credits scene in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a mid-credits teaser. After defeating Gerald Robotnik and Eggman seemingly sacrificing himself to save the world, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have a race much like the one they had at the beginning of the movie. Sonic wins, but actually does a bit too well and ends up on the other side of the country outside of New York. As he remarks about how he went too far, he’s attacked by an enemy familiar to longtime fans – Metal Sonic.

This Metal Sonic is quick to action, shooting Sonic at point-blank range. Sonic dodges and gets a hit on him, but it barely phases him as more Metal Sonics appear poised to take Sonic down. Just as they’re preparing to swarm him, another surprise cameo happens when Sonic is saved by none other than Amy Rose, Sonic’s longtime love interest.

There’s a lot to unpack here. First, seeing Metal Sonic is interesting because he was a creation of Dr. Eggman. With Eggman dead after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and this Metal Sonic not really matching this Eggman’s sleeker robot design, it’s not clear who made him. While it’s entirely possible that Eggman created Metal Sonic in this continuity, it seems more likely that this Metal Sonic may have been made or controlled by someone else.

As for Amy, her appearance isn’t as surprising given how there was rampant speculation that she would be the next character to appear in the film series. From what little we saw of her, it doesn’t seem like she’s sporting her classic attire; instead, it seems reminiscent of her Sonic Boom design. Given how the series has steered Amy away from being Sonic’s love interest in recent years, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see her be a much more independent character than her previous incarnations. She does seem to at least be aware of who Sonic is and may have been fighting these Metal Sonics for a while given how she effortlessly defeats them, so maybe she’s from the future, which would be a callback to her and Metal Sonic’s debut in Sonic CD.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s End-Credits Scene, Explained

While it may be tempting to leave after that teaser, you’ll want to stick around until the very end for the second and final post-credits scene of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. This one is a bit more straightforward since it’s a close-up shot of a crater with one of Shadow’s Limiter Rings half buried in dust. As we zoom in on it, we see Shadow’s pick up the ring, confirming that Shadow survived the destruction of the Eclipse Cannon.

Again, this isn’t all that much of a surprise, given that there are already talks about a Shadow spin-off series, but what is notable is that this continuity isn’t trying to replicate Shadow’s reintroduction in Sonic Heroes following Sonic Adventure 2. In Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow did sacrifice himself to save the Earth, much like in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, but his fate was left ambiguous until Sonic Heroes, where the game (and the franchise in general) teased if the Shadow present since SA2 was the original or a clone. Here, it’s almost certainly the original Shadow, meaning we can see this Shadow undergo character development that’s much more different than the game’s.

And that’s everything you need to know about the post-credit scenes in Sonic the Hedgehog 3!