In the space of just ten months in 1994, Jim Carrey headlined Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber, skyrocketing him from relative obscurity to the very top of the Hollywood A-list. A year later, the funnyman returned for Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, before deciding to avoid sequels entirely for the better part of two decades.
The Mask, Dumb and Dumber and Bruce Almighty all got new installments without the original leading man’s involvement, and they were all panned by critics and bombed at the box office, seemingly vindicating Carrey’s decision to opt out. He did eventually reprise the role of Lloyd Christmas for Dumb and Dumber To, and lent support in the sequel to Kick-Ass before completely disowning the movie, but it looks as though he’s more than happy to continue playing Dr. Robotnik for the foreseeable future.
Insider Daniel Richtman claims that the 58 year-old has not only signed on for multiple Sonic the Hedgehog films, but a solo spinoff series for Robotnik is also in the early planning stages, with Paramount presumably aiming to build an entire cinematic universe based around the beloved video games and the characters who populate them.
Sonic the Hedgehog‘s post-credits scene made it clear that the aforementioned villain will be back in the sequel with a look much more faithful to the source material, and if Jim Carrey wasn’t hamming it up enough in the first movie, then just imagine how he’ll chew on the scenery sporting Dr. Robotnik’s classic appearance. So far, Sonic 2 is the only project on the actor’s upcoming schedule, but based on the amount of fun he clearly had shooting the family film, he’ll no doubt be happy to stick around the franchise for a while.
