Idris Elba is Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and that’s just rad

I can already hear his delivery

We aren’t going to share every single casting announcement for a video game turned movie or show (see: the snowballing lineup for HBO’s The Last of Us), but when we’re dealing with Idris Elba as Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, yeah, that’s a post.

The actor just tweeted it out, like you do in 2021, and reactions poured in. I’m into it.

Knock, knock….#SonicMovie2 #Knuckles pic.twitter.com/N1PW5XaCEd

— Idris Elba (@idriselba) August 10, 2021

We know and love Elba from, well, a lot of projects — The Wire, Luther, Thor, Pacific Rim, and recently The Suicide Squad, to rattle off a few. (I know Chris will want me to throw in a Molly’s Game mention too, so consider it a done deal.) And in 2022, he’ll be Knuckles. This is one of those out-of-left-field choices that makes total sense once you think through it. I can already “hear him,” as it were, and I think the voice will fit the rest of the cast.

We had heard the famed echidna would be in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 due to set photos and also a movie synopsis, but I never would’ve guessed he’d be voiced by Idris Elba. I’m not mad! It’s an inspired choice. There’s also the meme factor, which is to say that Idris Elba is highly quotable in his best roles and I expect the sequel to lean hard into that fact.

Question is, who are they going to land on for Tails? Is Colleen O’Shaughnessey a lock?

I feel like pretty much everyone is coming into the second Sonic movie with honest-to-goodness expectations, which is a weird feeling when you think back on the Sonic redesign saga. We’ll see if the sequel rises to the occasion on April 8, 2022.

[Image Source: Sonic Retro]