Academy-Award nominated director and animator Fowler is on a whirlwind tour with the third Sonic, which is released on Dec. 20. During a London stopover, he sat down with Deadline to talk about the new movie, its starry cast, what might come next in the world of Sonic… and his special relationship with Shadow.

If you head back to the credits of 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog, you may notice a familiar name crop up: Jeff Fowler – director of all three Sonic movies – was part of the cult platformer's CG Movie Production team.

Keanu Reeves voices Shadow, the vengeful and moody doppelganger of the title speedster in "Sonic the Hedgehog 3," based on the video-game franchise.