Paramount Confirms Knuckles Spin-Off TV Series Release For April

US film and television production company Paramount released an official trailer for the spin-off series set in the Sonic universe, centered around the Echidna warrior, Knuckles. The six-episode series is set to debut on its streaming service, Paramount+, and the trailer confirmed a release date of April 2024.

The project was first confirmed in February 2022 during Paramount's Investor Day presentation following the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog film. At the time, its sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, was months away from its theatrical release, which first debuted Knuckles the Echidna, with actor Idris Elba attached to the project.

Now, the Echidna warrior will be boxing his way into a new adventure, which takes place between the second and upcoming third Sonic film, which the latter is slated to release on 20th December 2024. The series will debut on Paramount+ on 26th April 2024 in the US and Canada before being available in other territories on 27th April 2024, with a Japanese release later this year.

According to its official description, "The new live-action series will follow Knuckles (Idris Elba) on a hilarious and action-packed journey of self-discovery as he agrees to train Wade (Adam Pally) as his protégé and teach him the ways of the Echidna warrior."

In an interview with VGC, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka commented on the success of the two Sonic films, which helped reach the Sonic franchise to a much "wider audience" of those who never played or haven't played a Sonic game for some time. "It's this wider group of fans who we need to start now making content for," Iizuka stated.

Honestly, it makes us all very happy because we have more people now that we can bring content to. It is a challenge, though, because we have maybe new gamers or people who haven't played previous Sonic games, so we don't think we can go out there with on single game that will make the entire audience excited.

The Knuckles series stars Idris Elba, Adam Pally, Edi Patterson, Julian Barratt, Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi), and Ellie Taylor in recurring roles, with Games of Thrones star Rory McCann and Christopher Lloyd as Pachacamac set to guest star. Tika Sumpter, Ben Schwartz, and Colleen O'Shaughnessey will also appear in the series as Maddie, Sonic, and Tails, respectively.