Sonic 3 director Jeff Fowler pays tribute to 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog by putting sequences inspired by the bullet-heavy platformer into the threequel

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. Now, he's paying tribute to his time on the game by putting moments and sequences from the game directly into Sonic 3.

"We built some of those moments [from Shadow the Hedgehog] into some of the sequences," Fowler tells GamesRadar+.

While you'll have to wait until Sonic 3 releases in cinemas to find out exactly how it mirrors 2005's Shadow the Hedgehog, Fowler reveals the "first little bit of fight choreography" from Keanu Reeves' Shadow in the threequel is "very similar" to a set-piece that sees the Ultimate Lifeform fighting Black Arms soldiers in one of the game's cinematics.

On top of that, there was one moment from Shadow the Hedgehog's opening video that Fowler was keen to replicate on the big screen.

"There's what I thought was a very iconic moment from Shadow the Hedgehog where you're seeing Sonic sort of struggling on his knees and then he just collapses, and that reveals Shadow standing behind him. I was like, 'Oh, that's such a cool shot. We've got to acknowledge that in the movie. So we did pretty much a direct reference to that camera move."

On his time on the Shadow the Hedgehog team 20 years ago, Fowler added, "I had a blast working on the game and the cinematics. Here's this little badass hedgehog who rides a motorcycle, can teleport, and he's got a submachine gun… Now, 20 years later, to be doing the big-screen version – it's incredible."

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hits cinemas on December 20 in the US and December 21 in the UK.

For more, check out our rankings of the best Sonic games and our guide to upcoming video game movies.