Sonic 3 writers admit that they did consider killing James Marsden's lovable Tom: "It came up... but would have been maybe a bridge too far"

Warning: the following features spoilers for Sonic the Hedgehog 3...

Just because a movie is mostly aimed at kids, it doesn't mean that a major character will bite the dust. Look at Disney for example, who have famously killed off so many from Mufasa to Bambi's mom, leading to plenty of childhood trauma.

You would be forgiven, then, for thinking James Marsden's lovable Tom was dead during the final act of Sonic 3, which is out now in theaters. Taking a hefty blow from Shadow, Tom was sent straight to the hospital and, for a moment, it looked like he might not make it out alive. However, he did pull through with us seeing Tom recovering with his family during the final scenes of the film.

But writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller did indeed consider killing Tom off, admitting to GamesRadar+ that "it came up" during the threequel's development.

As Miller elaborates, they initially saw Tom's death as a way to raise the stakes and set Sonic on a path of vengeance against Shadow. He explains: "There were definitely talks of how can we up the stakes. We knew that we wanted the end of the movie to be about Sonic kind of finding himself in a similar place of anger and wanting revenge as Shadow. So, it was kind of well like, what could push him to that point?"

The answer at one point was Tom's death but, as Casey adds, the team ultimately decided that it wouldn't work. In fact, the writer feared that it would be falling into a movie trap he wanted to avoid: "Ultimately we were like, nobody really wants to see Tom die. We want people to be happy at the end of this movie. I think doing that would have been maybe a bridge too far."

He continues: "I mean, even before we were movie writers, we were movie fans, and it's often made me really mad when a character gets killed when they don't have to, especially at the beginning of a sequel, when they take your favorite character from the previous one and kill them off in the first scene. They're doing it to raise the stakes, but all they're really accomplishing is pissing me off."

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is out now in theaters worldwide. For more, check out out guide to Sonic 3 Easter eggs you may have missed, as well as our breakdown of the Sonic 3 ending and our Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review.