After the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, longtime comedy icon Jim Carrey revealed that he’d be stepping away from acting. His second turn as evil genius Dr. Robotnik was meant to be his last on-screen work for a while. Needless to say, fans were delighted and surprised when, not even two years later, Carrey returned for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to reprise the role of Robotnik (in addition to playing the character’s grandfather).
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So what does this mean for Carrey’s “retirement” going forward? The actor doesn’t have a bunch of projects on the docket, though there have been rumblings that he’s set to star in a new movie from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell. Whether or not that comes to fruition remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Carrey stepping away in 2022 was more of a break than an actual retirement.
Carrey spoke to ComicBook ahead of Sonic the Hedgehog 3‘s release and he opened up a little about his planned retirement. Carrey told us that you can never be “definite” about things like retirement, because you never know what kind of opportunities will come along, and he’s not ready to completely shut the door on projects he might love.
“You can’t be definite about these things. I said I’d like to retire but I think I was talking more about power resting,” Carrey joked. “Because as soon as a good idea comes your way, or a group of people you really enjoy working with, things tend to change.”
It’s safe to say that Sonic 3 isn’t the last time we’ll see Carrey on screen. What we don’t know is when we’ll be seeing him next. If he is actually doing the film with David Robert Mitchell, that’s likely still a couple of years away. Mitchell has the It Follows sequel, They Follow, on his slate, and his film Flowervale Street was just pushed to a 2026 release.
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The news of Carrey’s retirement first came about in 2022, when he told Access that he was “fairly serious” about stepping away from acting. He did note, at the time, that he could continue his career “down the road,” but few expected that return to come less than two years later.
“Well, I’m retiring…Probably. I’m being fairly serious, yeah,” he admitted. “It depends if the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says it’s really going to be important for people to see. I might continue down the road, but I’m taking a break. I really like my quiet life, and I really love putting paint on canvas. I really love my spiritual life and I feel like… and this is something that you might never hear another celebrity say as long as time exists, ‘I have enough. I’ve done enough. I am enough.’”
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hits theaters on December 20th.
