If you were hoping for either Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or Jason Momoa to portray Knuckles the Echidna, then you might want to sit down for this news, it has been confirmed that Idris Elba will be voicing everyone’s favorite aggressive echidna, Knuckles in the sequel film of the hit-video game movie Sonic the Hedgehog.
Video Game Players are very familiar with Knuckles, who is not only the Guardian of the Master Emerald but also known to be very hot-headed and a fierce fighter. Idris Elba made it official on his Instagram, he is also joined by James Marsden, Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Shemar Moore, and Jim Carrey.
Elba is a 5x Emmy nominee and won a Golden Globe in 2012 for Best Actor in a Miniseries for Luther. His recent features include Netflix’s The Harder They Fall and Concrete Cowboy as well as Universal/Will Packer’s Beast and George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, and recently starred in DC Comics, Warner Bros newest film The Suicide Squad as Bloodsport.
Created by Takashi Yuda, Knuckles made his debut in the 1994 Video Game, Sonic the Hedgehog 3. He was tricked by the nefarious Dr. Eggman into opposing Sonic and Tails, to gather the Chaos Emeralds for him, he would later become playable in Sonic and Knuckles, where he learns of Eggman’s trickery and teams up with Sonic and Tails during that game’s events. Since then he has made appearances in countless games, making his debut in animation in the 1996 Anime OVA, Sonic the Hedgehog, and a minor appearance in Sonic Underground. He would also make an appearance on Sonic X and later would star in the recent television series Sonic Boom.
While discussing his appearances in video games and television, let’s take a look at his appearance in books, he has made an appearance in Fleetway’s Sonic the Comic, the UK’s Sega Comic series that ran from 1993 to 2002, Knuckles’ appearance and the role was similar to his role in the video games meanwhile, in American Comics you had the SEGA Comic by Archie Comics and Knuckles had this incredible backstory created by writer Ken Penders, where he built a history behind Knuckles and the Echidna Tribes which was part of a Spin-Off Series that ran from 1997 to 1999.
After its cancellation, it would eventually be merged into the Archie Sonic Comic Series but would later lead to the disappearance of these characters years later due to a legal battle between Archie and Ken Penders, after the court battle the characters would be retconned and never seen again. Penders however is writing a new series focusing on the Echidna Characters he created for Archie in an original graphic novel series titled The Lara-Su Chronicles, more information about his series can be found on his Twitter Account.
Knuckles would make his appearance on the IDW Publishing Sonic Series but as a Guardian of Angel Island, a Treasure Hunter, and former commander of the Resistance. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is set to premiere on April 8th, 2022.
Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions, news tips, or questions, email them to: webmaster@bigrednerd.com.
Red's Nerd Den 