The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is speeding towards Paramount+ this April. The streamer released a trailer for the debut season of Knuckles, the franchise’s first live-action TV series.
The series reunites Jeff Fowler, Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, and Toru Nakahara, the team behind the films. The first season consists of six episodes that follow Knuckles on his quest for vengeance. Knuckles will stream on Paramount+ in the U.S. and Canada starting April 26. Additional Paramount+ territories will launch on April 27, and the series will head to Japan later this year.
Knuckles will also stream on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, Netherlands, Spain, as well as Central and Eastern Europe. During CBS’ coverage of Super Bowl LVIII on February 11, catch Knuckles and his friends, who will also make a (spoiler alert) surprise appearance on Nickelodeon.
Sonic the Hedgehog has sprinted through several mediums, which began as a video character created in 1991 by Yuji Maka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara at Sega. The games sold more than 80 million copies by 2011. Sonic and his pals spawned comics, books, and films. Knuckles joined the video game franchise in 1994 with the Sega Genesis’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as the primary antagonist before teaming up with Sonic in a sequel the following year.
In the new show, Knuckles is set on revenge, showing him in a different light than the films. The show sees a lot of action, from Knuckles battling his enemies set on stealing his powers to a Viking dog in training taking on his arch-nemesis, the mailman. Knuckles’ new human friend and protégé training in the ways of the Echidna warrior, deputy sheriff Wade Whipple, fights his own battles – a rowdy motorcyclist.
Knuckles takes place between Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog 3, which hits theaters on December 20. The series stars Idris Elba as the voice of Knuckles, Adam Pally returns as Wade Whipple, and includes guest stars Stockard Channing (The West Wing), Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones), Scott Mescudi (Don’t Look Up), Ellie Taylor (Ted Lasso), Julian Barratt (Mindhorn), Rory McCann (Games of Thrones), Cary Elwes (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Paul Scheer (Black Monday), and Rob Heubel (Children’s Hospital). Also reprising their roles are Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Tika Sumpter as Maddie, and Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Tails.
The first episode is directed by Fowler, who transitions the film’s cinematic animation style to television. He serves as executive producer along with Moritz, Ascher, John Whittington, Nakahara, and Elba. Ged Wright, Brandon Trost, Jorma Taccone, and Carol Banker also direct the series.
Sonic The Hedgehog was released in 2020 and stars Jim Carrey and James Marsden. The sequel came out in 2022, and combined, the films grossed $727.2 million in global sales at the box office. The sequel is the top-performing title in the Kids & Family category on Paramount+ in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Latin America, Australia, South Korea, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Japan.
Image credit: Paramount+