[SPOILERS] Three Storyboards for Scenes in Knuckles Series and Sonic 3 Movie Have Been Seemingly Leaked

Last night, three videos showing storyboards for both Paramount's Knuckles series and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 found their way onto the internet. We have not been able to verify the original source of these, and thus this should all be taken with a grain of salt. For now, due to the quality and scope of the boards, we are cautiously treating them as likely real, with the acknowledgement that we don't know how old these scenes are, and that there is always a possibility that things may have changed in the course of production.

One format encountered was a PDF hosted on a temporary file storage service. The other was a video slideshow on "CartoonUpdates," an otherwise empty Twitter/X account where the original tweets "have been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner" (sourced by SonicMovieUpdates). Many are interpreting the removal as further evidence of the storyboards' authenticity. At time of writing, the video version of the storyboards is available through an r/GamingLeaksAndRumours thread.

SONIC 3 MOVIE SPOILERS BELOW, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The first scene shows 443 panels from Sonic 3. Dr. Robotnik and Shadow are aboard the space colony ARK. The scene, titled "S3 SpaceStationTimeTravel v01 SVM," shows Shadow (who appears to be in his Super form), pushing the movie's version of the ARK in a manner that warps time. Given the context of what's happening, there's a good chance this is a scene near the end of the movie.

There are a number of pretty significant details in this scene beyond the inclusion of the ARK. The most obvious one being that Robotnik is still alive. He is saddened by the absence of Agent Stone, who he hallucinates being on the ARK with him, and then has flashbacks of Stone pulling him out of the rubble following Sonic 2, and nursing him back to health. In this moment, the ARK's power is failing as Robotnik attempts to redirect it to thrusters.

During the time warp, flashes of other scenes occur in distorted bubbles, including Super Sonic breaking through a window on the ARK to attack Shadow, Robotnik shooting finger lasers in a duel that seems to be against himself, a brief moment where he, Tails, and Knuckles are angrily huddled together, and a bunch of abstract visual warping.

KNUCKLES SERIES SPOILERS BELOW, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The Knuckles' storyboards are broken into two parts, one labeled "KTE EP6 BLACKARMSBATTLE part1 v16 SVM" and the other "KTE EP6 BLACKARMSBATTLE v12 SVM NOTES resleeve" (yes, we also noticed the title, we'll get to that in a bit). Again, with it referencing Episode 6, this is probably the ending of the series. Both scenes show Knuckles fighting someone in a large black mech suit in Reno, aided by a nearby person (presumably Wade given the premise of the show). Both seem to be involved in a bowling tournament.

In the first part, Knuckles orders food at a bowling alley before being interrupted by a commotion outside. He is ambushed by an electrified wire or tentacle. The mech suit grabs him and presses him against a wall. The cockpit slightly opens to reveal that the pilot is a bald/shaved man (possibly a soldier?) with panels attached to his head. Knuckles is thrown into the bowling alley, interrupting the tournament. Wade (I'm just going to call this person Wade for simplicity's sake) attempts to assist a hurt and defeated Knuckles, and he confronts the man in the mech suit.

The second part appears to happen some time after, where Knuckles again fights the man in the mech suit. Wade calls out "The Flames of Disaster!" as Knuckles is now able to shred off parts of the mech suit with a flurry of cinematic punches. The scene ends with Wade firing a Mazinger Z-esque rocket punch at a globe on a nearby building. Knuckles grabs the globe (now aflame) and crushes the mech suit with it (it's on a building, so it's probably hollow).

Obviously, there's a lot going on here across the two scenes that reference a number of games. While Black Arms and "The Flames of Disaster" are references to Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06 respectively, they probably shouldn't be taken as literal adaptation for now. Because of the antagonistic role GUN takes against Earth's pan-dimensional residents in Sonic 2, there's a good chance Black Arms refers to a military unit, villainous organization, or that specific mech suit. It also has the potential to play into Shadow's origin story, as a take on Black Arms being involved in his creation.  "The Flames of Disaster" while referencing Iblis in Sonic 06 seem like they refer to Knuckles' firey attacks here. It could be something that the two are trying to prevent in relation to the mech suit, an ability Knuckles gains, or something as mundane as a jokey name that Wade makes up for him.

While there's still quite a bit of speculation to be had about these storyboards, it's worth reiterating that we know very little about them at this time. We don't know their age (and thus if there have been meaningful revisions since), we don't know the larger story context in which they sit, and... while it would be quite an unreasonable feat to produce 900 storyboard panels for a hoax, fan project, or proof of concept, we can't with absolute 100% confidence rule it out as a possibility.

In either scenario, both the Knuckles series and the Sonic 3 movie will release this year. With hope, we will soon start seeing trailers for both projects and finally get a better sense of what they will be like.