Knuckles and Master Chief share the screen in Super Bowl commercial

Paramount+ provides a first in gaming history
Knuckles and Master Chief share the screen in Super Bowl commercial
Knuckles and Master Chief share the screen in Super Bowl commercial /

Super Bowl LVIII will kick off on February 11, 2024, in Las Vegas with the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers facing off against each other in a rematch of Super Bowl LIV – as usual the hype has already begun well ahead of game time, though. Viewers will be able to follow this edition of the prestigious match via CBS on TV as well as via Paramount+ online, which is why the streaming service put out an almost two minutes long commercial with an all-star line-up to advertise the programming.

From a video game perspective, this commercial contains an unexpected first in history, as this is the first ever time – at least to my knowledge – that Sonic’s Knuckle and Halo’s Master Chief share the screen together. The two iconic characters haven’t really met otherwise in crossovers or the like, as not even Fortnite – the king of all crossovers – sports skins for both of them.

Knuckles the Echidna is Sonic’s rival turned friend and debuted in 1994’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as an antagonist, becoming playable in Sonic & Knuckles that same year. A Paramount+ series featuring live-action Knuckles and named after the character is scheduled to premiere in 2024. Idris Elba has been cast to portray the protagonist.

Master Chief, of course, is the iconic face – or faceplate, rather – of the Halo franchise, which mainly consists of shooters based in a sci-fi setting that sees humanity fight for survival against an alien onslaught. He’s the principal protagonist in the Halo series available on Paramount+ that debuted its first season in 2022 and will start its second season on February 8, 2024 – so this Super Bowl commercial conveniently gets some additional eyes on that one as well.

It’s a bit strange that Knuckles and Master Chief’s first meeting is happening in an advertisement, but we live in interesting times when it comes to video game properties expanding everywhere.

They aren’t the only figures bringing starpower to the commercial: Patrick Stewart, Drew Barrymore, Jeff Probst, Tua Tagovailoa, and others add to its glamor.

You can check out everything releasing on Paramount+ in February 2024 on Men’s Journal.

Sonic Superstars is the quality modern 2D Sonic game I never thought would exist


Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg