Get ready to cleanse yourself of the evil spirits that are in you because Knuckles the Echidna, the sometimes nemesis and sometimes pal of Sonic the Hedgehog, has his own live-action TV series in the works at Paramount+. Not only that but it appears to be a spin-off of the current Sonic the Hedgehog film series, with Idris Elba reprising the voice of Knuckles for the show. This is not only the first live-action Sonic TV series but also the first Sonic show in general that will be squarely focused on Knuckles.
This begs the question of what the series will be about. Much like many characters in the Sonic universe, Knuckles doesn’t have one clear origin and we aren’t even sure how Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will handle it (though based on the trailers we have some clues.) What will the series follow Knuckles doing? Then of course we have to wonder, will this series give Knuckles the chance to team-up with Sonic?
While the show is going to focus in Knuckles (presumably in his movie CGI form, though Idris Elba playing a live-action Knuckles would be incredible) that doesn’t preclude Sonic, Tails, or any other characters from the franchise making an appearance. In fact, movie Sonic voice actor Ben Schwartz tweeted out that, “we are building a whole universe here.” If the Knuckles series is the first spin-off of the Sonic Cinematic Universe (SCU) then it’d make sense if Sonic popped in from time to time, especially since all that would be needed is Schwartz’s voice.
However that gets us thinking about the plot again. Haruki Satomi, CEO of SEGA CORPORATION stated that this will be a live-action show, meaning that it’s likely it’ll take place on Earth and not on Sonic or Knuckles’ home planet. If it did, that would make it a fully CGI series… though that Lion King remake from Disney was called live-action despite being mostly CGI so we can’t be sure. Still, it’s safe to assume that it’ll be set on Earth which makes us wonder where the show will draw inspiration from.
For those not deeply familiar with Knuckles’ back-story, let’s let his rap from Sonic Adventure fill you in.
“Born on an island in the heavens, the blood of my ancestors flows inside me. My duty is to save the flower from evil deterioration.”
Knuckles comes from the Floating Island in some versions of continuity, protecting the Chaos Emeralds or the Master Emerald. The Archie comics invented a bizarrely convoluted back-story for the Echidna race, which you can read more about here. It’s doubtful the movie will draw from that though, since creating a whole race of Echidnas would probably tax the shows CGI budget.
The live-action series is perhaps more likely going to draw influence from the Sonic Adventure games and the Sonic X anime, which featured Knuckles on Earth alongside Sonic. In the games Knuckles’ levels tasked him with searching for emeralds by digging around a large map. It could be that after the events of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 film the Chaos Emeralds are shattered and Knuckles has to trek around the Earth to find them. Just imagine it, every episode Knuckles shows up in a new town, befriends a group of humans, and maybe stops some corruption while tracking down the emeralds. It’d be like the ‘70s Incredible Hulk series!
This series would also be the perfect opportunity to introduce Knuckles’ rival from Sonic Adventure, Rouge the Bat. A rival treasure hunter, Rogue was often aligned with the bad guys and it wouldn’t take much to establish her as working for Robotnik.
We can’t wait to find out more. Also, if the opening theme of this show isn’t Idris Elba rapping the entirety of Knuckles’ theme from Sonic Adventure, ‘Unknown from M.E. … Theme of “KNUCKLES’’ then what’s the point of the whole thing?