This article is about a subject in the real world. Information in this article is about real life people, companies and things, and does not relate to the in-universe Sonic series.

Sean Thornton (also credited as Kirk Thornton) is an American voice actor who is the new voice of Shadow the Hedgehog, his first role as Shadow is the Xbox 360 game Sonic Free Riders. His most well known roles are Hotohori in Fushigi Yugi and Jin in Samurai Champloo. He also voices Don Patch and Hydrate in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Gabumon and other voices in Digimon, as well as Saïx and his whole counterpart Isa in the Kingdom Hearts series and Kisame Hoshigaki in Naruto and its sequel, Naruto: Shippuden. He is also somewhat known for portraying the character Harry Mason in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Rough, grouchy men in anime and video games are also voiced well by him, such as Jubei from Blazblue and Xiahou Dun in Dynasty Warriors 4 and onward. He also voiced Kevin Ryman from Resident Evil Outbreak but he was uncredited.

He is also an ADR Director, and is currently working alongside Wendee Lee to direct the hit anime series, Bleach, in which he voices the narrator and Gyōkaku Kumoi.

A German review of Sonic Colors revealed that Kirk also voices Orbot. ^{[citation needed]}

ReceptionEdit

Reactions to Thornton's performance as Shadow were generally mixed. While some fans have praised his performance for keeping Shadow's dark personality and sounding like his Kingdom Hearts character Saïx (though his tone seems more similar to Kisame Hoshigaki from Naruto in terms of an "older" and "sinister" type of voice but appears to be less rough and smooth, which is another one of Thornton's roles), others have criticized it for sounding "too old" and heavily criticized the way he stretches the end of his sentences as Shadow. However, Thornton's voice of Orbot was more positively received. ^{[citation needed]}