SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Producer Teases "AVENGERS-Level Events" for Upcoming Films
Sonic the Hedgehog producer Toby Asche is teasing big things for the future of the franchise and how the movies are going to keep getting bigger in scale.
Paramount Pictures has seen a lot of success with the first two films in the franchise, and we’ve got a third one on the way along with the upcoming Knuckles streaming series.
During a recent interview with Paste, Asche talked about their plans for the series and then teased that the film side would feature “Avengers-level events."
He said: "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.”
The producer added: “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."
He continued to explain: "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."
As a long-time fan of Sonic, I’m totally up for big-scale Sonic movies! There’s a ton of fun to be had playing in this sandbox, and I love that the creative team is having fun with these characters!
As for what led to the Knuckles series, he went on to hype it saying: "We thought we could translate that into a full series. I think it’s by far the funniest version we’ve had in any of the Sonic movies so far. It leans into weird comedy partially because of Adam Pally and because of what Idris brings in a really great way."
He added: "We also really, really liked the idea of going linearly through the games, and then in the third movie, being able to do a Sonic 3 and Knuckles super Easter egg.”
Jeff Fowler is returning to direct Sonic The Hedgehog 3 with Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog, Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Miles "Tails" Prower, Idris Elba as Knuckles the Echidna, James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, Tika Sumpter as Maddie Wachowski, and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik.
New additions to the franchise will include Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Alyla Browne (Furiosa), James Wolk (Harley Quinn), Sofia Pernas (Jane the Virgin), Cristo Fernández (Ted Lasso), and Jorma Taccone (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse).
Knuckles is set to premiere on Paramount+ on April 26, while Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will hit theaters on December 20.