Knuckles star Adam Pally and showrunner Toby Ascher explain how that mind-blowing Alan Wake 2-style rock opera happened
This article contains mild spoilers for Knuckles.
Today in sentences you never thought you’d read in 2024: Sonic spin-off Knuckles contains an Alan Wake 2-style rock opera.
From drafting in a member of The Lonely Island to getting in touch with American musical icon Michael Bolton, there were plenty of moving parts in play before the rock opera – which recounts Knuckles’ past via the medium of song – come to life.
But let’s rewind a bit. Knuckles’ fourth episode, 'The Flames of Disaster' starts on pretty ordinary footing. Wade Whipple (Adam Pally) has been captured by bounty hunter Jack Sinclair (Julian Barratt) and is left to his own devices by Knuckles (Idris Elba) on his quest to become a true warrior.
This, unexpectedly, devolves into Wade hallucinating a bowling alley fronted by Christopher Lloyd’s Pachacamac. From there, it only gets weirder – as Wade dons a Knuckles suit to belt out the tragic history of the rough-and-ready red echidna.
"Because we knew we had so much action built later into the series, we knew we needed moments that needed a little bit less action, a little bit less animation," showrunner Toby Ascher tells GamesRadar+.
"So that created a nice box for us to figure out how to do something unique in the series that was slightly different. We partnered with Jorma Taccone, who’s from The Lonely Island… We came up with this idea of retelling the story of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 through, essentially, a cheesy rock opera and building all of that story out and doing it like a Richard Curtis-esque high school play."
For Adam Pally, who plays Wade Whipple, it offered up the chance to work with Taccone – the director of cult classic Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping – and someone he describes as a "comedy hero".
"I look up to him. Getting to be directed by him and then have it be a musical rock opera – it’s like being on a sketch in Saturday Night Live and you’re thrown into it," Pally recalls. "It was a dream come true. I loved every second of it."
There was just one sticking point: who would provide the singing voice for Wade Whipple? As it turns out, Taccone’s relationship with singer Michael Bolton proved instrumental in adding the cherry on top of a rock-filled extravaganza.
"We knew we needed someone to play Wade’s singing voice and we called up Michael and we pitched him this crazy idea," Ascher says. "He immediately said: ‘Yeah, I love it. I love working with those guys.’ And so we have this wonderful piece of episode four where Wade gets to relive Knuckles’ story from the first two movies. Wade’s speaking voice is Idris Elba and Wade’s singing voice is Michael Bolton. There’s something about that that’s just so amazing to me."
Knuckles is now streaming on Paramount Plus. For more, check out our latest Knuckles and Sonic 3 coverage:
