Picking up after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the Knuckles spinoff TV series, Sonic 3 starts with its titular character (Ben Schwartz), Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba), and Tails the Fox (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) celebrating the anniversary of Sonic’s arrival on Earth with their human guardians Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter) Wachowski. Director Rockwell (Krysten Ritter) of the Guardian Units of Nations (GUN) agency interrupts the party, recruiting Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to help apprehend Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves) in Tokyo.

This mysterious new foe with unforeseen powers has escaped from stasis in a secret laboratory for 50 years. Team Sonic soon learns of the link between Gerald Robotnik (Jim Carrey), grandfather of the supervillain Ivo Robotnik (also Carrey), and Shadow. As the Robotniks gain control of an orbiting superweapon targeting Earth, our heroes must face their biggest battle yet.

While Sega Sammy Group and Paramount Pictures announced that Sonic 3 was going into development just before the release of Sonic 2, Carrey’s reprisal of his role from the first two movies was not a given. “In my heart of hearts, I felt like if we offered Jim a fun concept and if we dangled just the right carrot, he’d come back,” director Jeff Fowler tells Variety. “He loves entertaining young audiences.”

In the Access Hollywood interview from 2022, Carrey quipped that it would take “a script written in gold ink by angels” to coax him out of retirement. While Fowler presumably couldn’t rope angels in, he did commission a copy of the screenplay printed in 24-carat gold ink for Carrey. “It’s now worth about a hundred thousand dollars, so, hopefully, Jim has got it locked up somewhere,” Fowler tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Despite the golden screenplay and Carrey’s remark on the red carpet that he “bought a lot of stuff and [needs] the money, frankly,” it’s clear Carrey isn’t only in Sonic 3 for the cash. The actor was involved in designing the prosthetics that he would wear to play Gerald. “Jim had a lot of fun working with Mark Coulier, our makeup designer, to create Gerald’s look,” Fowler says. “We would look at the sculpts together, and Jim would just have some little specific notes and ideas.” For his creative input, Carrey receives an additional credit as “artistic consultant”.

The mid-credits scene of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 teases the introduction of yet another fan-favourite character in the upcoming fourth movie, due for a 2027 release. While it is unlikely that Carrey will return, fans have learnt to never say never. Maybe a script printed in platinum ink might do the trick this time.