Who is Gerald Robotnik in ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’?

The first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is astoundingly good. Like, high point for the film franchise-level good. Shadow did the Akira motorcycle slide. Transcendent.

For fans of the Sonic games, there are tons of little Easter eggs. The most obvious tease comes at the end of the trailer, when Jim Carrey’s Dr. Eggman sees an older Jim Carrey as an older Robotnik, who he tearfully addresses as “pop pop.”

Who is this old geezer? And why does his mere appearance all but confirm not only what Sonic the Hedgehog 3′s story will be, but that the film will break your heart?

Who’s Gerald Robotnik?

“Pop pop” is none other than Gerald Robotnik, Dr. Eggman’s grandfather. The mustache, clearly, runs in the family.

Like his grandson, Gerald is a big-shot scientist. In fact, fifty years ago, he was asked to be the lead on Project Shadow—a medical and military program under the purview of the United Federation that sought to create both an ultimate weapon and a way to achieve immortality. But Gerald’s reasons for joining where, on the whole, noble. His granddaughter (and Eggman’s cousin), Maria, had been diagnosed with a fatal illness, and Gerald hoped that the research for Project Shadow could aid in finding a cure.

As you might have guessed from the name, the project resulted in the creation of Shadow the Hedgehog. In the games, Shadow is man-made, but in the film trailer, Sonic refers to him as an “alien”—so the specifics might differ a little between the film and the games, unless Sonic just isn’t in the know yet in this scene.

Maria is very central to all of this. In fact, she and Shadow become close friends. (A young Ivo Robotnik, a.k.a. Eggman, does not get the pleasure of hanging out in the lab quite so much. Gerald clearly had a favorite among his grandkids.)

Shadow is Gerald’s ultimate creation, but our boy is a little bit too much of a success for some people’s liking. The Federation’s military (G.U.N.) deem both Gerald and Shadow a threat, and the military locks Gerald away. Shadow’s fate is even worse.

What happens from there is incredibly dramatic and will almost certainly be covered by the film, so I won’t divulge any more. Suffice it to say that, given how things shake out, Gerald Robotnik loses his sanity and slips into villain territory.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, both Eggman and Gerald Robotnik will be played by Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey will not also play Maria. Thank god.