Sonic the Hedgehog movie director confirms a nod to Knuckles in the film's opening moments

Those who've seen the Sonic the Hedgehog movie know it starts off with a baby Sonic segment. Baby sonic ends up getting chased by a group of cloaked bad guys, but their silhouettes certainly seem to give off an echindna vibe. In an interview with Comicbook.com, director Jeff Fowler confirmed the connection.

"Yeah, well they're definitely echidnas. We just felt like that would be a good... we needed basically some bad guys that weren't going to have a big role in the movie, but we wanted it to feel like canon, like a canon element that would make sense to be coming after Sonic and on his home islands. So yeah, they were a good candidate, and we had a lot of fun with just turning them into a little kind of warrior tribe and having them come after our little Sonic."