Tika Sumpter Teases Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Features Lots of Easter Eggs

Sonic the Hedgehog fans have plenty to look forward to in the film franchise’s third installment, according to star Tika Sumpter.

“[Sonic the Hedgehog 3] is as incredible as I hope everybody else thinks it is,” Sumpter, 44, exclusively told Us Weekly at the 2024 Paley Honors Fall Gala on Wednesday, December 4. “Jim Carrey plays two characters. Keanu Reeves voices Shadow. Ben Schwartz is back as Sonic. James Marsden and I, we have our fun relationship. Natasha Rothwell makes a cameo.”

She continued: “I just feel like it’s going to be bigger, better, more adventure. A lot of surprises and a lot of Easter eggs.”

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 picks up with Sonic, Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) and Tails (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey) after the events of 2022’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Now working as a crime-fighting trio, the group must team up with their former enemy, Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik, to take down the villainous Shadow the Hedgehog (voiced by Reeves, 60).

Sumpter reprises her role as Maddie Wachowski, the wife of Marsden’s Tom Wachowski, in the third installment, which hits theaters on December 20. Since meeting Sonic in 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog, the couple have become surrogate parents to the super-powered animal and his friends.

The Mixed-ish alum is a parent in real life, sharing her daughter Ella-Loren, 8, with her husband, Nicholas James. With Christmas just weeks away, Sumpter told Us that her little one already has her list for Santa Claus settled.

“She circled all her Amazon list. They get those magazines. She’s like, ‘Oh, I got mail,’ so I got to look through there,” she explained. “And I still have to do Christmas shopping. But you know what? I am not going to put any pressure on myself. What shall be, shall be. And she’s happy wherever we are.”

In addition to the holidays, Sumpter said she’s looking forward to relaxing after wrapping up the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 press tour. “I’m going to go lay down and I’m going to go eat, and I’m going to just watch Hallmark movies and maybe some Madea [movies] and laugh,” she shared.

Sumpter’s mention of the Madea film franchise was fitting at Wednesday’s 2024 Paley Honors Fall Gala, as the event honored Madea star and creator Tyler Perry with this year’s Paley Honors Award.

The actress told Us that Perry’s work means “everything” to her, stating, “I think more than the work, the amount of people he has inspired, he’s employed. He’s created systems where there weren’t any, where the main system kind of blocked him out and he had to dig his way in. And he’s like a big brother to me and he means the world.”

One of her favorite career memories was working on the TV series The Haves and the Have Nots, which was created, written and produced by Perry, 55.

“He always makes fun of me. He’s like, ‘You didn’t want to do it.’ But we were the No. 1 show on cable for years across every show on TV, and that opened up opportunities for me to produce more, too,” she gushed. “He allowed me to do movies while I was on the show. I got to work with so many other people, but he just wants me to keep dreaming bigger. And he goes, it doesn’t stop with just him. It’s more. And so, I love him. I love him deep.”

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hits theaters on Friday, December 20.

With reporting by Mariel Turner