The Sonic the Hedgehog movie featured everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog and the iconic Doctor Robotnik, but one character who ranks among fans’ favorites was absent from the film. Knuckles, the serious-natured, red echidna who joins Sonic other characters in their adventures, was nowhere to be found in the film. The character’s absence may have been a bit of a letdown to those who were hoping to see Knuckles make an appearance, but the movie’s director Jeff Fowler said the focus of this first film was on the rivalry between Sonic and Doctor Robotnik without adding too many other characters into the formula.
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Fowler spoke to ComicBook.com after the movie’s debut and shared more details on the decision to leave Knuckles out of the film. He said it was more important to nail the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie and get Sonic and the character’s origin story correct as well as his relationship with Doctor Robotnik.
“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,” Fowler said. “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.”
Sonic the Hedgehog did exceptionally well at the box office following the character’s redesign, a success which was greater than many would’ve expected judging from the very first reactions to the movie. With that success in mind combined with the way the movie is able to set the stage for a sequel, it certainly looks like we’ll have the opportunity to see more of Sonic and perhaps his friends in the future.
Those who’ve seen the movie by now and stuck around till the very end will recall that we at least did get to see one of Sonic’s friends make an appearance, though it’s unclear what kind of relationship the pair have right now.
