2024 is shaping up to be a monumental year for Sonic. In the upcoming months, Switch players can look forward to the release of Sonic X Shadow Generations. Additionally, fans will be happy to learn that a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie will debut on December 20th, with a Knuckles series following on April 26th (Paramount+).
In a recent interview with Paste Magazine, franchise producer Toby Ascher shed light on the origins of the Knuckles series and how the studio is using these smaller projects to elevate the Sonic movies to the level of ‘Avengers’ events.
This is his review:
“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. 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.
“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.”
In addition, he points out the intriguing connection between the third Sonic movie and the Knuckles series, which serves as a delightful surprise for fans reminiscent of Sega’s Sonic 3 & Knuckles. In 1994, players were given the opportunity to merge Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles on the Mega Drive / Genesis using a cartridge adapter. This allowed for a seamless and comprehensive gaming experience.
Some may dismiss Ascher’s comparison between the Sonic movies and the Avengers, but it’s understandable why he made that connection. Every film in the series has been adding more and more characters to the roster. It’s hard to argue that the franchise hasn’t been a massive success for Paramount Pictures. Before The Super Mario Bros. Movie overtook it as the highest-grossing video game movie in the US, the second movie alone brought in over $400 million worldwide.