“The Suicide Squad” star Idris Elba has joined the cast of Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” voicing Sonic’s friend and rival Knuckles the Echidna.
Elba announced the casting on Twitter with a picture of Knuckles’ spiked fist. Introduced in the video game “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” in 1994, Knuckles was originally a rival of Sonic who is tricked by Dr. Eggman into thinking that the blue hedgehog is trying to steal the Master Emerald, a powerful gem that allows Knuckles’ island to float in the clouds. After realizing what Eggman has done, Knuckles teams up with Sonic to defeat the evil doctor, and since has become a mainstay and occasionally a playable character in the Sega video game series.
Elba joins a cast that includes returnees Ben Schwartz as Sonic and Jim Carrey as Dr. Eggman, along with James Marsden and Tika Sumpter. Jeff Fowler is directing from a screenplay by Pat Casey, Josh Miller and John Whittington. The film finished production in June and is set for release on April 8.
Along with playing Knuckles, Elba stars as the assassin Bloodsport in the newly released DC film “The Suicide Squad,” and will star in Jeymes Samuel’s western “The Harder They Fall,” which will hit Netflix in November. He is also set to star alongside Tilda Swinton in the fantasy love story “Three Thousand Years of Longing” from “Mad Max” director George Miller, which MGM is set to release next year.
Elba is repped by WME, M88, The Artists Partnership and Ziffren Brittenham LLP.
