The Sonic the Hedgehog movie stumbled out of the gate, its initial trailer so ruthlessly derided on social media that Paramount spent an extra $5 million to fix its title character’s design. But it all worked out in the end, sort of. It wound up being arguably the last cinematic blockbuster before the pandemic effectively shut the industry down for about a year. It even got a sequel, which now has its own extremely qualified actor voicing its big addition, Knuckles.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, no less than Idris Elba — Stringer Bell himself — will help bring to life the beloved hedgehog’s echidna frenemy. First introduced in 1994’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Knuckles began as an enemy, known for his ability to scale walls and smash through walls. He soon became a reluctant ally. He even got his own semi-spin-off later that year: Sonic & Knuckles, which allowed players to play as him.
Knuckles was originally supposed to have a Jamaican accent, but presumably, Elba will just give him his native English drawl, which he now seems to use more frequently than the American one he did earlier in his career, most notably on The Wire. Or maybe he’ll try his stab at doing Larry King’s take on Sonic’s voice, even though the late talk show host was clearly doing a hedgehog.
(Via THR)