How Knuckles Prepares Idris Elba’s Character for the Next Sonic Movie — Plus, Could We Get a Season 2?
Warning: This interview contains mild spoilers from the Knuckles finale. Don’t want to know how it ends? Make like Sonic and Tails after Episode 1, and disappear!
Following Knuckles’ explosive debut on the big screen in 2022’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the flame-fisted echidna (voiced by Idris Elba) is back in his own self-titled spinoff series, now streaming on Paramount+. Joined by Wade (Adam Pally), another familiar face from the Sonic Cinematic Universe, Knuckles embarks on a six-episode quest to appreciate — and eventually help save — this wacky floating rock known as Earth.
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There’s plenty of Sonic-level action when the situation calls for it, but much of Knuckles’ existential journey occurs in the simpler moments: a beautiful Shabbat dinner with Wade’s family, a formative viewing of Pretty Woman with Wade’s mother (played to perfection by the legendary Stockard Channing) and a bowling competition in Reno. It’s nothing you’d expect from a Knuckles-focused TV show, but it ends up being exactly what the wayward warrior needs.
After working together to defeat the villainous Buyer (Rory McCann) in Episode 6, Wade and Knuckles celebrate their victory with a post-credits motorcycle ride down the open highway, where Knuckles hears Scandal’s “The Warrior” for the first time. “What is this amazing song?” Knuckles wonders aloud. “Could this be? Yes! This is… my jam!”
If you were hoping that Knuckles would end with a Marvel-style tag, serving as a bridge between this finale and the third Sonic movie (in theaters Dec. 20), you have our deepest sympathies. But series co-creator Toby Ascher assures TVLine that the events of Knuckles will have an impact on the SCU moving forward, specifically in how the echidna picks his battles.
“Now you have more of an understanding of why this planet is important to him, and why it’s something that he’s going to want to defend,” Ascher says. “When we met Knuckles in Sonic 2, he had this singular focus to get the Master Emerald and protect it, because that’s what his focus had been his entire life. This show asks what the warrior does after the war is over, and what we ultimately learn is that Knuckles’ values are shifting from being focused entirely on the Master Emerald to falling in love, having a relationship with friends on this planet, and finding a home. Going forward in the franchise, he has found his family and he’s going to protect them — and that means protecting this planet.”
While Ascher says the Sonic team “absolutely would explore further seasons” of Knuckles “if there’s a great idea and a great story,” it sounds like other characters may be given their moment in the spotlight.
“There are other ideas in television that we’re interested in, and of course there are also a lot of movie ideas,” he says. “Knowing that we have this world and these characters that fans care about so much, we’re focusing on finding the best stories and figuring out how to tell them within that world. Then we follow that towards what the best format for them would be [either as a TV show or a movie].”
Did you enjoy your adventures with Knuckles and Wade? Would you watch a second season, or should another Sonic character get the TV treatment next? Grade Knuckles Season 1 in our poll below, then drop a comment with your full review.
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