It’s not every day you see Idris Elba play a furry anteater, but that’s exactly what you’ll see in the trailer below. He’s back again as everybody’s favorite echidna – the eponymous Knuckles – and will star in the Sonic The Hedgehog spinoff series Knuckles that’s coming to Paramount Plus on April 26. The trailer is the first part of a two-handed promo push, the second part will air as a TV spot during the Superbowl on Sunday.
The series is set between the films Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Sonic The Hedgehog 3, and it follows the titular anteater and Sonic sidekick as he agrees to train cop Wade (Adam Pally) in the ways of the Echidna warrior. The goal? To save the world, of course. Dr Robotnik isn’t the villain this time around but one of his lackeys, The Buyer, is – and The Buyer wants Knuckles’ power.
Knuckles is feeling super Sonic
While the series is only six episodes long, the list of guest stars somehow manages to include Stockard Channing, Edi Patterson, Scott Mescudi, Ellie Taylor, Julian Barratt, Christopher Lloyd, Cary Elwes, Paul Scheer, Rory McCann and Rob Huebel. Sonic and Tails return too, their voices provided by Ben Schwartz and Colleen O’Shaughnessey, and Tika Sumpter reprises her role as veterinarian Maddie Wachowski from the two Sonic movies. There’s no Jim Carrey, sadly – while he’s out of retirement for a Sonic project, that’s for the Sonic The Hedgehog 3 movie and not the TV show.
I’ve got high hopes for Knuckles. the footage I’ve seen so far suggests it’s an entertaining blend of silliness and action, and it comes from the same brains as the surprisingly excellent Sonic The Hedgehog movies. They’re not quite as much fun as playing the games, of course, but they’re among the better gaming adaptations out there and contain considerably more LOLs and quite a few more gold coins than The Last of Us.
The trick here is to manage expectations. The movies were fun kids’ films with enough laughs for the grown-ups, with the first one earning a place in our roundup of the best Paramount Plus movies, and it looks like the spinoff series is going to be much the same, so keep an eye on our best Paramount Plus series to find out if it makes the cut. If anything it might be more fun: many reviews of the movies felt they overstated their welcome somewhat, stretching out the fun just a little too much for too long. Knuckles’ episodes promise to be a lot more punchy.
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