Sonic team boss says Shadow the Hedgehog is “not Vegeta in any way”

Sonic Team boss Takashi Iizuka took the opportunity to clarify in a recent interview that Shadow the Hedgehog is “not Vegeta in any way.”

Iizuka was speaking with GamesRadar at Gamescom, and was asked if fans have interpreted the character in a different way than how he originally intended. That’s where the talk about Vegeta began.

Vegeta is from Dragon Ball, and in the anime / manga, he starts off as one of the series’ primary antagonists before joining Goku and friends and more of an ally. However, Iizuka doesn’t want Shadow to be like that – and it sounds like he won’t be friends with Sonic anytime soon.

Below are Iizuka’s full words on fans comparing Shadow the Hedgehog to Vegeta:

“So yes, there are some ways that people interpret Shadow that are not how the team is intending. I think the biggest one, if you look online, everyone’s like, ‘Oh, this is Dragon Ball Vegeta.’

Vegeta really starts out as an enemy and then later becomes a friend and an ally and kind of, like, fights for justice and trying to save the world and whatnot. Shadow is not like that. I never want him to be like that. Shadow is doing his own thing, he’s not friends with Sonic, and he’s gonna go off and, you know, do whatever he feels is correct or right, or what he needs to do. And it’s not like, ‘Well, okay, we used to be enemies, but we’re friends now. Let’s save the world.’ He’s not that kind of character, and [I don’t] want him to be that kind of character.

So when people are always online saying, ‘Oh, it’s Vegeta, it’s Vegeta,’ it’s like, it’s not Vegeta.”

Shadow the Hedgehog will have a starring role in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie, and you can watch the first trailer that came out this week here. We also have coverage on the upcoming Sonic x Shadow Generations here.