No, we’re not living in the Twilight Zone: Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog movie, despite experiencing something of a wobbly start, has cemented a reputation for itself as yet another welcome video game adaptation. The lighting-fast ‘Hog joins Pokémon’s Detective Pikachu as one of few such films not to be crucified by critics and, thanks to a successful run at the box office, appears all but guaranteed to receive a sequel.
We’ve already seen glimpses of what to expect from such thanks to a number of post-credits scenes in the first film, of course, but one popular character neither seen or mentioned is Knuckles. The treasure-hunting, red-skinned echidna arguably stands alongside both Sonic and Tails as one of the franchise’s most iconic creations, so why, then, was he left out of the motion picture?
Having recently sat down with ComicBook.com for a chat, director Jeff Fowler has finally provided an answer, saying:
For this first film, we really were just looking at the 1991 game and just see where it all started and just keep it simple. Just really try to nail Sonic and Robotnik and just set up their rivalry because you don’t … I mean, I love … There’s a lot of great characters in Sonic universe, but it’s the most important thing is just to get Sonic set up and just tell a little bit of an origin story with him, and just do it in a way that really makes everyone fall in love with him as a character and just be rooting for more. And then, if all that goes well, then we can kind of open it up and bring in some of these other characters that fans know and love. And yeah, I mean, no one’s more excited than me to have that opportunity.
In essence, then, Fowler and the team behind Sonic’s live-action debut wanted the core of their film to act as an origin story setting up the never-ending feud between him and nemesis Dr. Robotnik. For that reason more than any other, Fowler didn’t want to overwhelm audiences with too many inhabitants of Sonic’s homeworld, with even his sidekick Tails being confined to a bonus post-credits sequence. With that said, however, fans can expect to see Knuckles, as well as no doubt many other natives of Mobius, appear in the inevitable sequel.
Sonic The Hedgehog is out now in theaters worldwide.
