Sonic the Hedgehog is trading his usual high-speed adventures for a visit to Bird Island. The famous blue hedgehog is reportedly making a cameo appearance in The Angry Birds Movie 3, bringing two of SEGA’s biggest gaming franchises together on the big screen.
Even better, Roger Craig Smith, the longtime voice of Sonic in the video games, is reportedly returning to voice the speedy visitor. Go to 1:47 in the new Angry Birds 3 trailer to see him.
While the cameo has not yet been detailed by Paramount or SEGA, the connection between these two properties is hardly a random collision. SEGA acquired a majority stake in Rovio Entertainment, the company behind Angry Birds, in 2023. That brought the birds into the same corporate family as Sonic, making a movie crossover a pretty natural next step.
The two franchises have already shared some screen time in the gaming world. In March 2024, SEGA and Rovio launched a crossover event spanning five mobile games: Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Dream Blast, Angry Birds Friends, Sonic Dash, and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. The event sent Sonic and Red into each other’s worlds, with the characters teaming up against Dr. Eggman, his Badniks and the Bad Piggies. Players could also find special characters and crossover content throughout the participating games.
Now Sonic appears to be getting a little theatrical treatment. Whether his appearance in The Angry Birds Movie 3 amounts to a quick blink-and-you-miss-it moment or something more substantial remains to be seen. Either way, it’s a fun bit of franchise business, particularly for fans who have been playing both series for years.
The movie itself is giving Red a challenge that could make his old anger-management sessions look like a relaxing vacation. Jason Sudeikis returns as the voice of the famously grumpy bird, who is now navigating life as a father. Rachel Bloom also returns as Silver, with the pair raising their children while another threat puts the world in danger. Their daughter June is voiced by Emma Myers, Walker Scobell voices their aspiring-athlete son Glider, and Psalm West plays Baby Olly. James Austin Johnson joins the family as Fuzzy, their pet spider.
Josh Gad is back as Chuck, Danny McBride returns as Bomb, and Tim Robinson joins the cast as a new pig character named Pork Chop. John Rice, who directed the original The Angry Birds Movie, is back in the director’s chair, working from a screenplay by The Angry Birds Movie 2 director Thurop Van Orman.
The official synopsis keeps things brief, describing Red’s biggest challenge as surviving fatherhood while saving the world. The franchise began with Red trying to protect Bird Island from a group of egg-stealing pigs, then brought the birds and pigs together when a new threat emerged in the sequel. Now Red has a family of his own, and the next adventure looks ready to test whether he can keep his temper under control when the stakes get personal.
Sonic, meanwhile, has his own big-screen adventure approaching. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is scheduled to race into theaters on March 19, 2027, just a few months after the birds make their return. Director Jeff Fowler is back for the fourth installment, and production officially wrapped in May 2026.
Ben Schwartz will once again provide Sonic’s voice in the Paramount movie series. The returning cast also includes Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, Idris Elba as Knuckles, Keanu Reeves as Shadow, Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Tails, James Marsden as Tom and Tika Sumpter as Maddie. Kristen Bell is joining the franchise as Amy Rose, while Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry and Nick Offerman are among the new additions.
The ending of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 set up Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, giving the next movie plenty to work with. Paramount has not yet released an official plot synopsis for the fourth film, so the details of Sonic’s next adventure remain under wraps. Still, the return of familiar faces and the introduction of Amy give fans plenty to speculate about while the movie speeds toward its release date.
One interesting wrinkle in this crossover is that Roger Craig Smith and Ben Schwartz have different connections to the character. Smith is widely recognized as Sonic’s longtime video game voice, while Schwartz has played the hedgehog in Paramount’s theatrical movies. So this reported Angry Birds cameo brings a familiar voice from Sonic’s gaming history into a movie franchise that is already part of the same SEGA family.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 arrives in theaters March 19, 2027. The Angry Birds Movie 3 flies into theaters first, on December 23, 2026. Looks like Bird Island is about to get a little faster.
