Jackal Squad (also called Sega's Jackal Squad and Jackal Squad: A Sonic the Hedgehog Tale) is an American adult computer animated TV miniseries set in James Cameron's Sonic Cinematic Universe, airing exclusively on HBO Max. The series is the first and only R-Rated/TV-MA product within the franchise due to its darker, more mature content.
Premise[]
Set 10 years before the events of Silver and Blaze, the show follows the origins of Infinite's former mercenary group the Jackal Squad, and centers around a group of the Squad's renegade members as they seek to claim their own bounties against their former leader's orders and approval.
Characters[]
The characters and environment in the miniseries share the same animation of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its spin-off/sequel Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
Rogue Jackal Squad[]
A crew of anthropomorphic jackals and renegade former members of the Jackal Squad who seek to collect bounties by their own terms, and against Zero's orders and approval.
- Talon (voiced by Jerry O'Connell), the leader of the Rogues who objects to Zero's leadership, and the Squad's code. A skilled fighter, Talon wields the "Phantom Claw", a commando knife made of Phantom Ruby shards which can (depending on Talon's will) infect the victims' minds and cause them to hallucinate unreal vision. The character is heavily influenced by Sylvester Stallone's portrayal of John Rambo in the Rambo franchise, and Hunter in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its spin-off Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
- Ada (voiced by Karen Gillan), the Rogues' only female member. She is the tech expert, and the most intellectual of the crew. She holds a grudge with Zero's Jackal Squad group after Neon "mercy-killed" Ada's partner Flora without hesitation and remorse, and left Ada to grieve alone. She is shown to have romantic feelings for Echo. Ada is also a skilled acrobat, and is accompanied by a Jackal Squad drone which can help her hack systems, or shoot at her desired targets. The character is heavily influenced by her voice actress Gillan's portrayal of Ruby Roundhouse in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and its sequel The Next Level, and Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Echo (voiced by Sebastian Stan), a member of the Rogues, and the crew's firearms expert, he is an excellent sniper who regularly boasts of never missing a shot. He holds a grudge with Zero's group after he was banished for failing to assassinate the current G.U.N. Commander; although it is shown that he actually hesitated on killing the commander in front of his granddaughter. He is shown to have romantic feelings for Ada. The character is heavily influenced by DC Comics' supervillain/antihero Deadshot, and Stan's portrayal of Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Screwball (voiced by Ken Joeng), a hyperactive, insane member of the Rogues, and the explosive expert. He is in Talon's crew due to Zero banishing him from the Squad because of his unstable nature, which almost once jeopardized the Squad's mission. His insanity and paranoid attitude, on the other hand, proves quite useful for Talon's crew, especially when it comes to desperate hours. Despite being insane and psychotic, Screwball is also loyal to his crewmates, and has his serious, sane side, such as when he shares his story with the crew in "Chapter 5: Identity".
- Dynamo (voiced by Stephen Amell), a member of the crew with cybernetic implants. He is in Talon's crew after being freed from Captain Whisker's crew, who roboticized him and enslaved him for their own purposes. The character is heavily influenced by DC Comics' Cyborg.
- Butch (voiced by Christopher Judge), a member of the Rogues, and a hulking, muscular jackal with superhuman strength, and a tattooed body. He is the crew's muscle, and is in Talon's crew due to Zero treating Butch like nothing more than a living weapon and expendable tool, and for disposing of him to the G.U.N. Units who arrested him and experimented on him to learn of the super-soldier jackals' weaknesses. Butch is heavily influenced by Sonic the Hedgehog's Werehog form due to size and body structure, and on Judge's portrayal of Kratos in the 2018 God of War video game.
Jackal Squad (Main Group)[]
- Zero (voiced by Tom Hiddleston), the leader and captain of the Jackal Squad mercenary group.
- Crystal (voiced by Aubrey Plaza), the second-in-command of the Squad.
- Neon (voiced by Jude Law), a high-ranking member and sergeant of the Squad. He is a constant target for Ada since Neon "mercy-killed" her partner Flora without hesitation and remorse, and left Ada to grieve alone.
Individual[]
- Rosemary Gold (voiced by Rebecca Romijn), a female red fox, and Talon's secret wife and lover, with whom he has an infant daughter named Sophie.
- Sophie Gold, Talon and Rosemary's daughter, and a Jackal/Fox hybrid. She appears primarily as a toddler in the miniseries, whereas she is grown up in Silver and Blaze.
- Agent Nick Lombard (voiced by Darren Criss), a G.U.N. agent who is assigned to spy on the Squad's activities, and is allied to Talon's crew.
- Flora (voiced by Caitlyn Taylor Love), Ada's deceased lesbian lover and partner-in-crime, who was badly injured during a failed assault against the Iron Queen's armada, and "mercy-killed" by Neon, causing Ada to leave the Squad and vow revenge.
- Thaddeus Talbot (voiced by Ralf Moeller), a corrupt general of G.U.N. Units from Professor Gerald Robotnik's era. He was indirectly responsible for the creation of the first Jackal Squad.
- Captain Whisker (voiced by Clancy Brown), a villainous robotic pirate who is somewhat hard to detest due to his clownish nature, and is the captain of a robot pirate crew which has been rivals and sworn enemies of the Jackal Squad for generations.
- Horus (voiced by Sam Witwer) - A Babylonian assassin hawk who is roboticized and brainwashed by Zero as a cyborg and servant for the Jackal Squad.
- Slade the Dingo (voiced by Karl Urban) - A Mobian dingo, and a ruthless assassin under the Jackal Squad's employ.
- Abraham Tower - The commander of G.U.N. units. He appears in a flashback of "Identity", which reveals that Echo was once hired to assassinate him. However, Echo hesitated when Tower was defenseless, but with his granddaughter by his side, causing Echo to be banished from the Jackal Squad.
- Professor Gerald Robotnik - Doctor Eggman's grandfather, and a disgraced scientist at G.U.N. who reluctantly (and unwillingly) created the first member of the Jackal Squad.
- Regina Ferrum the Iron Queen - An Overlander who worked alongside the Iron King in the Dragon Kingdom, and was trained by a cult of magitek users at a young age, becoming capable of using magic spells against her enemies. She makes a silent appearance in "Chapter 5: Identity", during the flashbacks of Ada's origin story.
Episodes[]
| No | Episodes Titles | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Chapter 1: Prologue" | |||
| After slaughtering a group of astronauts who were trying to collect data about the Sol Dimension, Zero, the captain of the Jackal Squad, holds the surviving member at his mercy. As an "act of mercy before execution", Zero decides that the astronaut should learn some more about the Jackal Squad's history before dying. 40 years ago, Thaddeus Talbot[1], a corrupt general of G.U.N. (Guardian Units of Nations), once ordered Professor Gerald Robotnik to create the perfect war soldier to ease G.U.N. Units' victories. The Professor eventually did so by ordering the capture of a Jackal from the Sol Dimension. The Jackal was soon held captive and experimented on, before being subjected to a Super-Soldier formula which would improve his strength, speed, and intelligence, and earn experience in human weapons. For the first three months, the experiment appeared to be a success, until the Jackal rebelled against his captors and masters, stole their formulas, and escaped back to the Sol Dimension, whereas Talbot decided to cover the incident as the Professor's scheme. Not too long after returning to his dimension, the Jackal assembled some of his fellow jackals and injected them with the same formulas which would soon improve them and enable them the use of firearms and vehicles. Later on, as they witnessed Talbot arriving with his men to capture the Super-Soldier Jackal, the Jackal and his crew revealed themselves and fought back, issuing a violent battle where the G.U.N. soldiers were gruesomely slaughtered one by one. Talbot attempted to call for reinforcements, but his superiors (having discovered the truth about the incident with Professor Robotnik's experiments) refused to heed his call, which allowed the Jackals to maul him to death. Therefore, the Jackals embraced their new potential and became the first Jackal Squad. As time went by, the Squad expanded, and they became the world's best group of thieves and mercenaries, as they collected valuable relics, and killed any who stood in their way. Zero finishes the story and proceeds to execute the astronaut, knowing that no one else needed to know about the Jackal Squad's history. Unbeknownst to him, the astronaut was an undercover G.U.N. sentry, whose equipment was used by engineers of G.U.N. Headquarters to spy on the Squad, and overhear their leader's speech. | ||||
| 2 | "Chapter 2: Munity" | |||
| Having become relentless thieves, mercenaries and assassins over the years which went by, the members of the Jackal Squad continued their activities across the Sol Dimension while being relentlessly hunted by G.U.N., and Captain Whisker's crew of robotic pirates. One patrol led by Talon is sent to steal a Phantom Ruby prototype guarded by a G.U.N. Unit, until a shootout erupts between the Jackals and Whisker's crew. After the jackals with him are killed, Talon (against Zero's orders) decides to destroy the Phantom Ruby prototype, resulting in an explosion which destroys the outpost, and Talon ends up missing in the nearby river and presumed dead. But Zero does not honor Talon's sacrifice because of his ways of disobeying orders. Three years later, Talon (now an outcast from the Jackal Squad society) is living a simple life in the Windmill Village with his secret wife the red fox Rosemary Gold, and their infant daughter Sophie, until he finds himself having to defend the farm from a crew of robot pirates seeking to ravage the village. Knowing that the robots are hunting both active and inactive members of the Squad, Talon resolves that he must leave the village for Rosemary and Sophie's safety. He also decides to form a crew of his own by recruiting other mutually disgraced, former members of the Jackal Squad who were either cast out or left behind. Talon manages to recruit tech expert Ada, experienced sniper and firearms expert Echo, explosive expert Screwball, and muscular prison inmate Butch to his cause, while promising Rosemary that he and his crew will not aim for innocents like Zero's Squad did before. Talon and his crew manage to track down and infiltrate Whisker's ship, where they end up rescuing and recruiting roboticized jackal Dynamo, who helps them sabotage the ship. Whisker discovers them, and a brutal fight issues. Talon manages to incapacitate Whisker, while Screwball and Dynamo set off the explosives in the ship. Talon and the crew evacuate while the explosives obliterate the ship along with Whisker and his crew. Talon continues travelling alongside his new crew, while vowing to be better bounty hunters than Zero and the rest of the Jackal Squad ever were. Meanwhile, Whisker's remains are collected by the main Squad's engineers, who manage to decipher Whisker's memory files and view the actions of Talon's crew, with Zero learning that Talon is still alive. | ||||
| 3 | "Chapter 3: Wanted" | |||
| Rejoicing their victory over Captain Whisker and his pirate crew, Talon and his crew of Rogue Jackals are on the run around the lands collecting their own bounties, and exterminating anyone who opposes them; although they also maintain their one moral code of never taking away any innocent life. Their actions slowly draw the attention of Captain Zero, who is far more displeased with Talon's crew "disobeying the Jackal Squad's code", as he believes that they will disrupt the Squad members' reputation as feared assassins and mercenaries. Zero eventually entrusts his second-in command Crystal and sergeant Neon to capture or kill Talon and his crew. Using the robotic remains of Whisker, Crystal and Neon manage to track down Talon's crew through Dynamo's cybernetic implants, which are still connected to the robot pirates' technology. Crystal and Neon lead a Jackal Squad unit to ambush the Rogues in an outpost of Babylon after overhearing of Talon and the crew planning to collect treasures and bounties in there. The ambush goes awry when Talon (who was aware that the Squad members loyal to Zero were tracking the Rogues down through Dynamo all along) reveals that he and his crew had prepared their own traps in Babylon as part of their contingency plan. During the issuing shootout, both Talon's crew and Crystal and Neon's unit are ambushed by Babylonian assassin birds[2] seeking to defend their endangered citadel, issuing a more brutal stand-off. Several jackals and birds are killed in the crossfire, while Crystal and Neon are crippled -Crystal loses her arms, while Neon loses his right eye and left leg-, and Dynamo has his cybernetic implants severely damaged. Without options, Dynamo has Talon and the rest of the crew evacuate before using his own power core as a nuclear bomb to obliterate the citadel, seemly sacrificing himself. Watching the explosion from the distance, Talon and his crew vow to avenge their comrade by their best means. Meanwhile, Crystal and Neon barely survive the blast, and are taken back to the Jackal Squad's main headquarters to recuperate, while Horus, the only surviving Babylonian assassin, is kept captive by Zero's units. Instead of executing Horus, however, Zero chooses to spare him, declaring to have better plans and other uses for him. Elsewhere, a bruised, bloodied Dynamo is being carried around by the river, and is still alive. | ||||
| 4 | "Chapter 4: Bounty" | |||
| After paying their last respects for Dynamo, Talon and his crew exact to continue their hunt for more treasures and riches, by which they also plan to steal from the rich misers, and donate for the poor. After the Rogue Jackals destroy a Jackal Squad outpost to collect their stolen gems for a nearby tribe of koalas, Zero places a 4 million ruby bounty on the Rogues' heads for the assassins who succeed in killing them. Those assassins include Slade the Dingo, who personally seeks revenge on the Squad (both Talon's crew and Zero's faction) for the murder of his wife and unborn child. Meanwhile, Dynamo (still alive, but greatly wounded) is found and recovered by Rosemary and her fellow farmers from the Windmill Village, who learn of Talon's intentions of undoing the evils which the Jackal Squad started decades ago, with Rosemary pleased that Talon is fulfilling his promise, but concerned of his impending fate. As Rosemary and the villagers tend to his wounds, Dynamo also learns of the secret life Talon spent in the village with Rosemary and Sophie. Meanwhile, news about the bounty placed on the Rogues' head by Zero reach a G.U.N. outpost, from where Agent Nick Lombard had been assigned to spy on the Jackal Squad's activities. Learning of the Rogues' intentions of undoing what the Jackal Squad members have wrought, Lombard determines that Talon and his crew could be allies for G.U.N.. Discovering Dynamo in the Windmill Village, Lombard contacts him through a sentinel drone, and alerts him of the bounty placed on the Rogues by Zero. Elsewhere, Talon and his crew continue their career, despite being ambushed relentlessly by assassins (including Slade) seeking to kill them. As he continues recovering in the Windmill Village, Dynamo contacts the Rogues, revealing himself alive, and alerting them of the bounty placed on their heads, and Talon and his crew agree to trust in Lombard, despite their previous issues with G.U.N. units who are still at war with the Jackal Squad. As the Rogues continue defeating every assassin in their way, Zero dispatches a roboticized and brainwashed Horus to deal away with them. Navigating their way to Lombard's outpost, Talon and his crew are ambushed by Horus, and subdued. But before Horus can finish, a fully healed and upgraded Dynamo resurfaces, and incapacitates Horus, allowing Talon to kill him. After Dynamo hacks the Jackal Squad's database through Horus's implants to cancel the bounty announced by Zero, the crew makes it into Lombard's outpost, where they begin discussing a plan to dispose of Zero and his Squad once and for all. Meanwhile, Slade (who had survived his defeat by Screwball and Butch) is inspecting Horus's corpse, and is still seeking to collect the bounty. | ||||
| 5 | "Chapter 5: Identity" | |||
| Overhearing Zero ordering the Jackal Squad to build an unstoppable weapon which will ravage the planet, and turn it into a wasteland, Talon and his crew begin discussing a plan to stop the weapon. After overhearing of Talon's secret life with Rosemary and Sophie in the Windmill Village, his crewmates express support about it, and (while making preparations to stop Zero's weapon) also get to know each other better by telling Talon and each other stories of their own old lives before they joined the Jackal Squad and after they were kicked out or left; Ada was once partners-in-crime with her deceased lover Flora, with whom she hanged out in dangerous places since youth, and underwent a series of heists when older, before they were recruited by the Squad for their stealth talents. They underwent numerous risky missions while starting their romantic relationship, which was short-lived when Flora was badly injured during a failed assault against Regina Ferrum's armada, and "mercy-killed" by Neon, causing Ada to leave the Squad, and vow revenge. Echo was once a successful archery and shooting champion before he was recruited by Neon for his prowess and excellent masksman skills. Echo underwent a series of successful assassinations until he hesitated on killing his latest target: G.U.N. commander Abraham Tower in the presence of his granddaughter, causing a disgusted Zero to banish him and leave him to be arrested by G.U.N. for "failing him". Dynamo was once a tech expert in the Squad until a radioactive explosion on his lab left him mutilated, but still alive. Zero soon banished him when Dynamo was "beyond saving", and left to die alone, although he would later be revived, roboticized, and enslaved by Captain Whisker. Screwball was once the Squad's explosive expert, until Zero banished him from the Squad because of his unstable, insane nature, which almost once jeopardized the Squad's mission. He was soon captured by G.U.N. agents who took him to a mental hospital to treat him of his mental illness. And finally, Butch was once one of the Squad's muscles until he felt like he and other super-soldiers were acting like nothing more than mindless puppets and defected against them. Despite his efforts, Butch was captured and held in the Ark to be studied about the super-soldiers' weaknesses. Back in Present, the Jackals complete their preparations for their assault while seeking to decide what to do once their crew disbands. They are suddenly ambushed by Slade, who is still hell-bent on getting his reward. The crew ready themselves, and agree to have one last errand: redemption. | ||||
| 6 | "Chapter 6: Redemption" | |||
| Buying agent Lombard and the rest of the crew time to move on to their objective, Talon and Butch hold their own against Slade while Lombard notifies G.U.N. units of Zero's plan. Talon and Butch overpower and restrain Slade, and catch up with their crewmates, although Butch is wounded in the fight. Captain Zero and his Jackal Squad units hijack a prototype G.U.N. Airborne aircraft carrier, and use it to amplify Zero's super-weapon, converting the carrier into a doomsday canon weapon which Zero plans to use on the civilizations which opposed the Squad in the past, including (and starting with) the Windmill Village. Knowing that the weapon will also kill hundreds of innocent civilians, the Rogues arrive there via a G.U.N. aircraft provided for them by Lombard, who then passes the coordinates of the stolen aircraft carrier to the G.U.N. HQ. Arriving, Dynamo hacks the computer room, programming the carrier to fly away from the cities. Ada, Echo, and Butch eliminate as many of the guards and snipers as they can before overpowering Neon and Crystal. Screwball reaches the core of the carrier, and begins setting the explosives. Talon confronts and duels with Zero, who at his rage breaking point even begins to question what (or who) Talon has been hiding from the Squad years ago besides his crew. The fight is suddenly interrupted when Slade (having escaped his restraints, and stowed away in the crew's aircraft) arrives and incapacitates Zero, blinding his right eye, and dropping off the carrier to his apparent death, before resuming his fight with Talon. After a fierce fight, Slade becomes aware of Talon's secret life in the Windmill Village, and vows to "pay Rosemary a visit" once he kills Talon. A provoked Talon wounds Slade, and throws him with himself out of the carrier. Wounded and weakened, Butch uses his last strength to throw Ada, Dynamo and Echo safely back to the aircraft, while Screwball (also ambushed and wounded by incoming Jackal Squad guards) detonates the explosives, killing himself and Butch. Talon and Slade continue fighting in mid-air until Talon places one of Screwball's bombs on Slade and detonates it, killing him along with himself. After paying their last respects for their fallen comrades, the crew (now pardoned from their past crimes by G.U.N. thanks to Lombard) disbands; Ada and Echo start a life together in the Windmill Village, while comforting Rosemary over Talon's death. They also offer to help her on raising Sophie. And Dynamo joins G.U.N. as a tech expert under Lombard's tutelage[3] Having survived the destruction of the aircraft, Zero, Crystal and Neon are washed up in a beach elsewhere, and Zero screams in rage now that the Jackal Squad has been destroyed for good. | ||||
Soundtrack[]
Licensed Songs Featured in the Film[]
Like most feature films, the miniseries also includes some licensed songs which follow some sequences of the story.
| Title Song | Artist | Moment the Song Plays |
|---|---|---|
| "War Cry" | Really Slow Motion Music | Played in the film's first trailer. |
| "Tom Tom" | Holy Fuck | Played in the cold opening of "Prologue", on which the G.U.N. agents are ambushed and brutally slaughtered by the Jackal Squad. |
| "Paranoid" | Black Sabbath | Played in "Mutiny", in a sequence of Talon assembling the renegade members of the Jackal Squad to form his own crew. |
| "Free Bird" | Lynyrd Skynyrd | |
| "TBD" | ||
| "TBD" |
Notable Roles in Other Media[]
| Actor | Character | Other Known Roles and Performances |
|---|---|---|
| Jerry O'Connell | Talon | The voice of Captain Marvel / Shazam in Justice League Unlimited, Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam, and Infinite Crisis. Also the voice of Superman in the DC Animated Movie Universe (from Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015) to Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)). |
| Rebecca Romijn | Rosemary Gold | Married to O'Connell; also notable for portraying Mystique in the first three X-Men films, and for voicing Lois Lane in The Death of Superman (2018), Reign of the Supermen (2019), Batman: Hush (2019), and Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020). |
| Karen Gillan | Ada | Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe |
| Sebastian Stan | Echo | Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe |
| Ken Joeng | Screwball | |
| Stephen Amell | Dynamo | Oliver Queen / Green Arrow in the Arrowverse |
| Christopher Judge | Butch | The voice of Kratos in the 2018 God of War video game, and T'Challa / Black Panther in the 2020 Marvel's Avengers video game. |
| Karl Urban | Slade the Dingo | Skurge the Executioner in Thor: Ragnarok, and Billy Butcher in Amazon Prime Video's The Boys |
| Darren Criss | Nick Lombard | Superman in Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020) and Justice Society: World War II (2021) |
| Caitlyn Taylor Love | Flora | The voice of Ava Ayala / White Tiger in Ultimate Spider-Man |
Taglines[]
- "James Cameron's Universe of Sonic the Hedgehog... Has Its Dark Side"
References[]
- ↑ from the prologue of Shadow and Rouge
- ↑ identified offscreen as Babylonian birds of prey identical to the Babylon Rogues
- ↑ Dynamo returns in Agents of G.U.N.
| Films | Sonic | Sonic Returns | Fang the Sniper | Chaotix | Soleanna | Shadow and Rouge | Sally and the Freedom Fighters | Chaotix: Rise of the Iron Queen | Sonic World Run | Fang: No Man’s Land | Silver and Blaze | Chaotix: Between Dark and Light | Sonic Across the Universe | |
|---|---|---|
| TV Shows | Sonic Mania | Jackal Squad | Agents of G.U.N. | |
| Comics | James Cameron's Sonic - The Prelude | Sonic Returns - The Prelude | James Cameron's Sonic Universe: Tangle and Whisper | James Cameron's Sonic Universe: Dulcy | |
| Related Information | Full actors cast | Trailer transcripts | |