Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog character
Shadow the Hedgehog in promotional artwork for Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
First game	Sonic Adventure 2 (2001)
Created by	Takashi Iizuka
Voiced by (English)	Video games David Humphrey (2001–04) Jason Griffith (2005–10) Kirk Thornton (2010–present) Animation Jason Griffith (Sonic X) Kirk Thornton (Sonic Boom)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Kōji Yusa

Shadow the Hedgehog (シャドウ・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, Shadō za Hejjihoggu^?) is a character who appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series released by Sega. He is an artificially created black and red hedgehog whose hover shoes propel him at extreme speeds that rival those of Sonic. He can also use the Chaos Emeralds to manipulate time and space through a technique called "Chaos Control". The character first appeared in Sonic Adventure 2, where he was depicted as a villain and later an antihero, suffering from a tragic backstory; occasionally, he becomes an ally to Sonic and his friends, but remains at odds with them due to their differing moral compasses.

Designed as Sonic's arch-rival, Shadow has been featured in a variety of Sonic series games, including a self-titled game, which received mixed reviews. The character himself has been received very positively, and was ranked the second most popular character in the franchise (after Sonic himself) in an official poll.

Shadow was first shown by Takashi Iizuka for Sonic Adventure 2, he was first shown to the public in a game trailer, but his name was not revealed.GameStop described what little was shown as Anti-Sonic - "similar in appearance, but with darker skin, more angled eyes, a fearsome scowl, instead of Sonic's trademark grin." Iizuka said that they maintained the mystery around Shadow and had wanted to feature him in his own game since he was introduced. After feeling that it would be inappropriate to give Sonic's character a gun as fans had requested in mailings, Yuji Naka believed that by focusing on Shadow for his own game, they could use his different identity from Sonic to build upon the Sonic brand. The character was featured as a guest announcer and performed other promotional work for the game's release during a wrestling show set up by the Japanese league, Pancrase, in December 2005. Shadow's design was influenced by films such as Underworld, Constantine, and Terminator.