Tomorrow (April 26), Knuckles premieres on Paramount+. Starring Idris Elba as the superpowered CGI Echidna from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it teams him up with Adam Pally’s hapless deputy Wade Whipple for a road trip/bowling adventure that will delight fans of the Sonic series and new fans alike. And while it seems like this could just be a fun, one-off lark, for Executive Producer Toby Ascher, who also worked on the previous Sonic movies as well as the third film coming in December, Knuckles was a key part of making sure the franchise continues to work.
“It was really important to us as we were building at the end of Sonic 2, to have a really distinct plan on what we wanted to do with the future,” Ascher told The Parent Watch. “What's great about the Sega characters and the Sonic characters is there is this giant world of really fantastic characters for this franchise to grow with. And so we've been very lucky that between Neil Moritz, and Jeff Fowler, and myself, we've sketched out a future for Sonic that will involve larger movies like Sonic 3, where we bring a lot of characters together, but also involves smaller stories like Knuckles, where we get to take some of these characters and really explore who they are and what makes them tick in, in depth ways.”
That’s exactly what pans out over the course of the six-episode series, which drops all episodes this week. In it, Knuckles is living with Sonic and Tails in the Wachowski house. He’s having a hard time fitting in, and so is Wade, who just wants to be a championship bowler but can’t quite make it work. So Knuckles decides to train Wade to become the next member of the Echidna warrior clan by taking him to Reno for a bowling championship. Along the way, Wade gains confidence, and Knuckles learns a little more about how to function on Earth.
“We're a very nerdy bunch that gets to work on these Sonic movies,” Ascher continued. “And for years, the real problem with video game movies is they didn't spend enough time focused on character. They tried to adapt the game without telling a great character story in the middle of it. And from the very beginning with the Sonic franchise, we tried to focus on that, we tried to figure out, how do we create a story where you care about these characters in a really emotional way and in a really earnest way?”
And yes, there are plenty of poignant emotional beats throughout the series (you can read our Knuckles review for more on that), but it’s also extremely goofy. Even for those used to Jim Carrey’s antics as villain Doctor Robotnik from the film part of the franchise, fans might be surprised how wild, weird, and surreal this series gets.
“In a lot of ways, Knuckles is our first pure comedy,” noted Ascher. “There's giant action and there's giant effects. But with Adam Pally in the lead, it really allowed us to play with comedy, both verbal and physical in a way that we haven't done before.”
Pally has a long history with comedy series, from the late, lamented Happy Endings to a long stint on The Mindy Project – as well as, of course, providing plenty of comic relief in Sonic the Hedgehog and its sequel. But for the stealth comedy hero of this series, you need look no further than the title.
“One of the things that we loved about the Knuckles character, this comes out of the end of Sonic 2, is he has this wonderful confusion about our world,” Ascher said, “because he's such a serious character, because he's this sort of barbarian, this warrior, seeing him in this fish out of water context is just hilarious to us. And so we're really trying to push that and lean into the comedy throughout in a way that maybe, because there are more stakes involved in the Sonic movies at times, we haven't been able to do as much. So, especially the middle of the series… We tried to lean into, how can we build as many laughs out of Knuckles as possible?”
You can find out for yourself with Knuckles premieres tomorrow (April 26) on Paramount+.