With Knuckles, The Sonic Movies Make Their MCU Play

We got our first trailer for the Paramount+ Knuckles show on February 8, and it looks like a lot of fun. Idris Elba returns as the titular echidna, and he’s joining forces with the live-action Sonic movies’ comic-relief cop Wade Whipple to deal with the remnants of villain Robotnik’s lackeys after the events of the second film. While Paramount hasn’t revealed much about the limited series just yet, this is clearly the Sonic movies’ first play at a Marvel-style shared universe. The question is, can it learn from Marvel’s mistakes?

From what we see in the trailer, Knuckles is going to be pretty busy in the six-episode series. On top of training Wade in the ways of an echidna warrior, our hero is seen becoming a certified gamer, building a coliseum in his adoptive family’s home, and facing some ex-Eggman forces looking to harness his super strength for their own benefit. The show has a handful of the movies’ cast reprising their roles, with Ben Schwartz and ​​Colleen O’Shaughnessey back to play Sonic and Tails. Tika Sumpter also returns as Maddie, one of the main human characters added to the live-action movies.

Check out the trailer below:

Knuckles takes place between Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 set to premiere on December 20. The trailer has plenty of quips and reads like a Marvel trailer, but it also is the first in possibly several planned side stories in the live-action Sonic universe. Rumors are floating around after leaker Daniel Richtman reported that a project centered around Sonic’s rival Shadow the Hedgehog may also be in the works following Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

The move toward a shared-universe format is further emphasized by the MCU-style stingers in both movies. The first movie ended with Tails showing up on Earth to find Sonic. The second’s post-credits scene introduced Shadow, although he didn’t have any lines of dialogue. I’ll admit I popped off both times, but I’ve seen this hype before, and Marvel is facing diminishing returns at the box office after years of saturating the market.

My hope is that if live-action Sonic movies and shows become a pillar of Paramount’s programming, they won’t become so frequent that we stop looking forward to them. Three movies in the course of five years is a lot, but we haven’t been so inundated with spin-offs and TV series to the point of burnout. So we’re fine, for now. I just hope that as the live-action Sonic universe expands, everyone involved recognizes that fans need time to breathe before the next thing. But I won’t say no to a Shadow movie or a Rouge the Bat show, Sega.

Knuckles premieres on Paramount+ on April 26.