Something that’s been especially exciting about the live action Sonic the Hedgehog films is getting to see what’s being set up next in the post-credits scenes of each movie. 

Enough time has passed, so I’ll just say that the post-credits tease in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 revealed a battle between Amy Rose and an army of Metal Sonics. This begs the question: Who could have built the Metal Sonics since Eggman met his demise at the end of the film?

Eggman is who built the mechanical menace in the video games and the comic books, but the movies now have a chance to go with a different route to his creation. Let’s take a look at who could have built Metal Sonic in the movies, ranked by likelihood.

6) Gerald Robotnik

Gerald Robotnik is one of the few characters intelligent enough and evil enough to create a Metal Sonic army. He might even do it out of pure joy while watching the destruction they’d cause. That being said, he does rank as least likely on this list for two reasons: he became deceased at the end of the movie and didn’t even know about Sonic the Hedgehog before the events of the film. How or when would he have made these robots?

5) The Buyer

The Buyer was the main antagonist of the Knuckles TV series. He’s got the mechanical know-how, leftover resources to build robots after his former employment with Dr. Robotnik, and seems absolutely insane. If he somehow survived being crushed by a giant bowling ball, he’s someone who could pull it off. The only question is, why would he? He’d sooner make Metal Knuckles than Metal Sonic.

4) G.U.N.

G.U.N. certainly has the ability to create something like a Metal Sonic army. Perhaps they wanted to make sure there were many Sonics to protect the world, but something within them malfunctioned and made them evil. It’s also possible that Director Rockwell seems to have some shady motives, so she could potentially have something to do with it. G.U.N. has become a major part of the movies, and it doesn’t seem like that’s going to change any time soon, so having them be this important in the creation of a major villain wouldn’t feel far-fetched.

3) Agent Stone

Agent Stone may not be nearly as intelligent as Dr. Robotnik, but he does care about him. It would make a lot of sense to see him doing what he can to continue the doctor’s work. Perhaps he came across the blueprints of Metal Sonic that Dr. Robotnik created and built him to honor the man he cared so deeply about. It’s always felt like the Agent Stone character was created as a back-up villain in case the studio wasn’t able to get Jim Carrey to return, so this is a good way to carry on what his character setup.

2) Eggman, Posthumously

Metal Sonic could have just as easily been created by Dr. Eggman like he was in the source material. If this is the case and he truly is gone for good, maybe he built the first Metal Sonic to be activated after his demise. He did make sure to have those electric quills from the pesky blue hedgehog on hand, and it’s likely they were used to “copy” Sonic’s “data.” Why not just activate Metal Sonic while he was still alive? That’s for the writers of the next movie to figure out.

1) Someone New to the Films

There’s a really good chance that it could be a character we haven’t even met yet in the films. This battle against an army of Metal Sonics could be leading up to introducing the new big bad after the departure of Jim Carrey’s Eggman. This could include other villains from the games like Eggman Nega (which theoretically could also be played by Jim Carrey) or even some baddies from the comic books like Dr. Starline. Heck, there could even be an original character like the Buyer from Knuckles, but that would be an odd choice since the source material does offer a lot to work with.

Read Next: ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ Review