E3 2005 Shadow the Hedgehog Statue

Submission 1,149

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About

The E3 2005 Shadow the Hedgehog Statue is a large statue of the character Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise aiming a handgun at a downward, diagonal angle. The statue was purportedly set up at E3 2005 to promote the video game Shadow the Hedgehog, with numerous photographs of people posing underneath the gun, as if Shadow is about to shoot them, being uploaded online over the following years. Photos of the statue became the subject of memes throughout the late 2010s and 2020s. The statue is currently set up in the SEGA U.S. offices.

Origin

During E3 2005, SEGA set up a large statue of Shadow the Hedgehog to promote the release of its game Shadow the Hedgehog. The statue depicts Shadow aiming his gun at a downward angle. Photos of the Shadow statue were first posted online on May 19th, 2005, by the SonicGear^[1] and PressTheButtons^[2] blogs, with the latter including a photograph of someone posing in front of the statue's gun (shown below, top and bottom).

At the release of Shadow the Hedgehog the game, they unveiled this statue at E3 in the USA. This is a curious piece, with him looking rather gloomy or angry, rather than 'action' or 'exciting' as the other statues tend to want to convey.

Spread

On May 28th, 2017, X^[3] user @catboy_420 posted a photograph of the statue, writing, "this giant statue of shadow with a gun is from e3 2004 and is absolutely rotting in a warehouse somewhere," garnering over 4,500 likes in seven years (shown below). On January 9th, 2018, X^[4] user @DaPatMac posted renders of the statue.

On October 8th, 2019, X^[5] user @Miexriir posted a photo of herself posing with the statue in the SEGA offices, writing, "Was very lucky to get the chance to tour the SEGA office and meet some of my heroes yesterday," garnering over 4,400 likes in five years (shown below, left).

On December 16th, a photo of someone else posing in front of the statue, as if Shadow is about to execute them, was posted to the subreddit /r/SonicTheHedgehog,^[6] garnering over 1,800 upvotes in five years (shown below, right).

On April 27th, 2020, an edit of the execution photo was posted to /r/blursedimages,^[7] garnering over 11,000 upvotes in four years (shown below). On July 27th, 2021, a Redditor posted screenshots of a SEGA Instagram post to /r/SonicTheHedgehog^[8] showing the statue, garnering over 1,000 upvotes in three years.

On June 20th, 2023, the Instagram^[9] page sleepingongems posted a photo of the statue, garnering over 6,000 likes in a year. On August 14th, 2024, X^[10] user @king_of_limb posted an edit of the execution meme replacing Shadow with Mickey Mouse, using the meme to reference the Disney+ wrongful death lawsuit controversy, garnering over 111,000 likes in six days (shown below). The post was reposted to /r/peterexplainsthejoke^[11] on August 18th, garnering over 2,000 upvotes in two days.