According to franchise producer Toby Ascher, upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog films will be “Avengers-level events,” with this lofty goal being made possible by the production of smaller projects. Case in point– the Knuckles TV series, starring Idris Elba, will premiere on Paramount+ later this month on April 26.
“We got really excited about the idea of expanding our characters in our world into television, specifically, because it gives us a platform to really do character studies,” Ascher said in an interview with Paste Magazine.
“We knew that, with Shadow coming into Sonic 3 and some of the bigger things that we want to do, the Sonic franchise on the movie side is going to be these Avengers-level events.”
Upon its release in 2022, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 brought in over $400 at the global box office, becoming the highest-grossing video game film in the United States until The Super Mario Bros. Movie hit theaters in 2023. The third film in the franchise is scheduled to be released on December 20, 2024.
“They’re going to be these big, exciting stories that have a lot of different characters. And so what television did for us is it gave us time to go into some of the more supporting characters in depth and really build them out in cool ways,” Ascher continued.
With the addition of TV shows and theatrical releases, Sonic will return to consoles this Autumn when Sonic X Shadow Generations releases on the Nintendo Switch. A full remaster of the original Sonic Generations, the game will also feature a brand-new campaign featuring Shadow the Hedgehog.
