Taking place between Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Sonic The Hedgehog 3, Knuckles is the latest in the ‘Cinematic World of Sonic the Hedgehog’ and reunites some favourite Sonic characters – including Idris Elba as Knuckles and Adam Pally as Wade Whipple – for a brand new live action adventure series.
The show follows Knuckles on a journey of self-discovery as he agrees to train Wade as his protégé and teach him the ways of the Echidna warrior.
We sat down with Pally to find out more…
What is it like coming back to the world of Sonic?
It’s a dream come true to have a small part in something and then watch it grow and be asked to do more. It’s a dream come true for an actor when anyone wants you to do more. That’s all you ever want to hear!
The creative team [for the series] is the same as the movie so it really felt like it was just one of the most comfortable work environments I’ve ever had where I got to go from the exact people who were making the movie to the exact people who are making the show. All they wanted from me was more time, which you dream of being asked!
What was it like to be able to explore Wade Whipple more?
I got to dig in and really think of him as someone I already knew. A lot of times you get a role like this and if it’s bigger, you get to come up with it from moment one. But with this I got to do it gradually, almost where it was like, every time we met him, we were seeing a little more and then we meet his family and you get a real full picture of this guy.
How does the TV show fit into the wider world of Sonic?
The timing of the story is between the movies of Sonic 2 and Sonic 3, but I think the way it fits into the story is coming off of Sonic 2, which is a huge win for Knuckles and he’s defeated his strongest enemy. He’s left in this place where he has to figure out where he fits in the world. And I think that that’s something that anybody can relate to, you don’t have to be an echidna alien warrior to ask yourself ‘what’s my purpose?’ And Wade is asking himself a similar question at the same time.
So that’s how we spring off into the series. It just feels like a left turn in the movies. Think of it as a side quest. It’s just really enjoyable.
In what way does Knuckles differ from the Sonic movies?
It’s really nice and refreshing to follow Knuckles, especially given Idris Elba’s amazing performance as Knuckles, which is truly comedic gold. It’s nice to have a character who is earnest and not sarcastic or sardonic or cynical. So the difference is that the show has this real kind of (not that the movies don’t have it as well), but there’s a real optimism to it because Knuckles is just so earnest.
How do you go about performing the scenes with Knuckles?
We had an amazingly talented production team of puppeteers and visual effects artists and actors who created a Knuckles that was there in the room with me that could emote, move its eyes, move its hands, talk back to me. Then I had Idris’ lines that I could interact with, and then when he came back in, he could interact with what I had done. It’s like when you leave a conversation and you think ‘oh, I should have said that’, this is the perfect way to do it because everybody had their chance to do their ‘I should have said that’ moment.
Is there any room for improvisation at all?
Well Jeff Fowler, who did Sonic 1 and 2, worked with Jim Carrey! I think they give him the ultimate freedom and the room to succeed and they were just as generous with me. You don’t need to do it all the time, but to be open to improvising does give you little parts of the show that have just a little more personality.
You get to work with legends Cary Elwes and Stockard Channing, who play your parents in the series. What was that like?
It was really cool! Rizzo was my mom! It was awesome. I mean anytime you get to work with people like that, and you watch them work, you get better because whether you have similar processes or different processes you learn what works for you by watching other people, so it was a dream come true.
It was very hard not to quote The Princess Bride to Cary. I would try to get him to say things to me from the movie. I would be like ‘here’s your coffee, do you want me to put it here or here…’ and he’d be like, ‘put it over there” and I’d be like ‘over here or…?’ and he’d say ‘as you wish’ and I’d be like ‘THANK YOU!’. That’s all I wanted! I was in awe every day.
Music plays a big part in the series and Wade has his very own music jam mixes. What songs would you have on your music jam mix?
I have so many playlists. They range in need. Am I working out? Is this a party? Is this a Sunday afternoon party? Is this Saturday night rager? All those all those things factor into what’s going on.
But there are some staples that you have to have if you’re going to make a playlist to pump yourself up. Generally, you want ‘Bombs Over Baghdad’ by Outcast. You want ‘Killing In The Name Of’ by Rage Against The Machine. You want ‘Animal’ by Pearl Jam. Those are probably my top three pump-you-ups.
There are plenty of 90s nostalgia elements in Knuckles. We particularly liked the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sleeping bag. Were there any nostalgic things you were excited to see?
I love all that stuff, like toys and I love it. I mean, lying in that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sleeping bag… I don’t know if I had that exact one but I had one like it and you kind of don’t want to get out of it while you’re filming. You feel like ‘oh my youth!’.
What are you looking forward to audiences seeing in the series?
I just hope that they have as much fun as we did making it, especially for the real Sonic-heads or I like to call them Knuckle-heads. I think they’ll be really happy with how good we were to the material and the characters and how we put little Easter Eggs in there. It’s something that you can watch with everybody.
Knuckles is out on 27 April on Paramount+
