‘Knuckles’ Highlights the Sonic Franchise’s Biggest Problem

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Knuckles.

Knuckles has officially smashed its way onto Paramount+, and the results of the Sonic the Hedgehog film franchise’s first spin-off are fairly mixed. There are a lot of things the Idris Elba-led show gets right, such as some really fun and impressive action sequences and a solid sense of humor. However, there are also some pitfalls that the series suffers from, such as some underdeveloped villains and some fairly uneven pacing. Both Knuckles‘ biggest strengths and biggest weaknesses are directly tied to one crucial element: the human characters.

Frankly, Knuckles doesn’t really feel like a show about Knuckles the Echidna at all. This is a show all about Wade Whipple the Police Officer (Adam Pally). Wade and his family members quickly become the main focus of the series in a rapid amount of time, and while they’re not remotely an unpleasant presence to watch on screen, they still overshadow fans of the IP are looking to see. It’s something that is present to varying extents in Knuckles and both of the prior Sonic the Hedgehog films, and if Paramount wants the franchise to last a long time, they’ll need to move beyond the human characters eventually.

Knuckles

Knuckles the Echidna teaches deputy Wade Whipple the techniques of the Echidna warrior.

Release Date

April 26, 2024

Cast

Idris Elba , Adam Pally , Jaimi Barbakoff , Alice Wren Tregonning , Tony Coughlan , Colleen O’Shaughnessey , Daniel Singh , Alfredo Tavares

Seasons

1

Wade Whipple Is the Main Character of ‘Knuckles’

Knuckles is truly considered a secondary figure in his own series, and a big part of that has to do with his character’s arc in the series (or lack thereof). The first episode of Knuckles teases the idea that Knuckles needs to move beyond his close-minded warrior upbringing to become a contributing member of society on Earth. The thing is, that’s something Knuckles already learned in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, so the lesson seems a bit redundant here.

Perhaps that’s also why Wade’s story feels like it is given so much more urgency, even to the point where it appears as if he has far more screentime than Knuckles. Admittedly, Wade certainly has a lot more going on in the show, as he’s trying to prove himself as a brave “warrior” and is hoping to rekindle his relationship with his deadbeat father (Cary Elwes). As soon as Wade’s mother (Stockard Channing) and sister (Edi Patterson) are introduced, the show ultimately becomes more about the Whipple family rather than the animated red echidna.

To be perfectly clear, we’re not saying that the elements involving the Whipple family are bad. In fact, they are the subjects of some of the show’s best moments. The doomed father-son dynamic between Wade and his dad is legitimately heartbreaking at times, and the episode where Wade has a musical dream sequence is one of the funniest parts of the show. Still, they distract from what the show was promising, which is a standalone story following Knuckles.

The Sonic Movies Are Putting Too Much Emphasis on the Human Characters

Knuckles isn’t the only tale from this universe to have too much of an emphasis on the human side characters. The two main theatrical films we’ve gotten in the Sonic the Hedgehog are both still very much Sonic’s (Ben Schwartz) stories. We see the blue speedster go from a humble and reclusive outcast into a beloved member of a local community, and his dynamic with the human members of Green Hills is admittedly engaging.

With the exception of Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), humans typically play a small if not nonexistent role in the games, but that’s not the case for the movies. Tom (James Marsden), Maddie (Tika Sumpter), and especially Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) all have great moments of levity to set themselves apart from the more monotonous obligatory human characters in other franchises. They are at their best when they match Carrey’s level of absurdity, such as when a military general suggests that Robotnik of all people destroyed an entire country, which is just all the right amount of silly.

Again, as with Wade and the Whipples in Knuckles, these characters are not unlikable or a chore to watch on-screen. It’s just an unfortunate reality that their narratives and stories are not remotely as interesting as the video game characters being adapted. They feel like an enjoyable side dressing to a dish that would simply be better served without it.

The MonsterVerse and Transformers Franchise Have Also Struggled With Human Characters

While the human characters of Sonic the Hedgehog are overall bearable, the same can’t be said for other blockbuster franchises with similar issues. One current example is the Monsterverse films, which seem to consistently insist that the humans are just as important as Godzilla or Kong when they couldn’t be more boring and forgettable. The franchise does seem to be moving in the right direction, as the fun and goofy vibe of the human characters in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is closer to the likable figures in the Sonic movies. Plus, there’s also the unparalleled character development seen and widely praised in Godzilla Minus One.

An even more egregious example is pretty much every entry in the live-action Transformers franchise. For all the screentime given to the titular transforming robots in those films, double that is given to the human characters, who most of the time are just screaming their heads off while slow-motion explosions surround them. The only real exception is Bumblebee, but even that fan-favorite installment takes almost all of its character beats from movies like The Iron Giant. We are finally getting a 100% human-less entry with the animated prequel Transformers One, though it remains to be seen whether that will breathe new life into the saga.

To reiterate, the problem with the Sonic the Hedgehog movies focusing so much on the human characters isn’t so much that they’re bad characters. It’s that they’re taking away from the animated, larger-than-life characters who should be the central focus. The upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is already primed to cater more to fans with the introduction of characters like Shadow (Keanu Reeves), and the constant emphasis on characters that are not as interesting or prevalent as Sonic and the gang is only going to hurt a potentially promising and long-running franchise in the long-run.

Knuckles is available to stream on Paramount+.

Watch on Paramount+