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Idris Elba will voice Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2

By DeAngelo Epps August 10, 2021

Coming hot off the heels of the recently released The Suicide Squad, Idris Elba has just confirmed that he will be returning to theater screens once again to voice Knuckles the Echidna in the next Sonic movie, currently titled Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

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

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— Idris Elba (@idriselba) August 10, 2021

Sonic the Hedgehog’s second movie adaptation was announced earlier this year after its very successful predecessor. The movie is confirmed to star Sonic, his sidekick Tails, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, and the first theatrical appearance of Knuckles.

The surprise casting was unveiled via a Twitter post straight from Elba himself. In his Tweet, Elba writes “Knock knock,” which happens to be a very popular Knuckles line from his Sonic Adventure theme song Unknown From M.E.

Before this casting announcement, there was tons of speculation on who would be lending their voice to the “new porcupine on the block with the buff chest.” Two names that were constantly floating around were Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Momoa. Funnily enough, it seems that Sonic fans are reacting even more positively to the Elba confirmation than the “leaks” surrounding those two big names.

YOOO LETS GOOOOOOOOO
IDRIS ELBA WILL SING PUMPKIN HILL! https://t.co/DkUClRMgqy

— Matt McMuscles (@MattMcMuscles) August 10, 2021

With the inclusion of Knuckles in the film, it’s clear that this movie will most likely be based on Sonic 3 & Knuckles. There’s a good chance we could see Knuckles’ start as Sonic’s enemy, thanks to Robotnik’s lies, and his evolution into one of his closest friends and allies.

While there’s no trailer for the film yet, it’ll certainly be entertaining to hear Elba’s voice come out of a buff, little Echidna.

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Sonic Frontiers is getting new playable characters and story content next year

Sonic in his fighting stance in the latest Sonic Frontiers trailer.

Sega revealed the roadmap of all the new content that's coming to Sonic Frontiers in 2023. The company shared a graphic on the official Sonic Twitter account on Wednesday, showing three separate updates that will come with new features, modes, character skins, and other exciting new content throughout the year.

https://twitter.com/sonic_hedgehog/status/1598000246772023296

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Even while moving forward, Sonic Frontiers never forgets the series’ past

Sonic and Knuckles (Cyber Space form) on Ares Island in Sonic Frontiers.

Throughout my nearly 20 hours of playing through Sonic Frontiers, running through Starfall Islands, and getting to the bottom of Sonic's friends getting stuck in digital purgatory, I kept getting blasts from the past. The newly released adventure is filled with wonderful callbacks to previous games, both in terms of gameplay and story canon. It may be a brand new "open-zone" game, but it beautifully blends modern open-zone gameplay mechanics with classic side-scrolling ones. Some of the previous Sonic titles have sort of done that before, including Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Forces, but Frontiers stands out in how respectfully it treats the rest of the series.

What stuck out to me the most during my playthrough is how Sega uses the game to reflect on some of the best (and worst) moments in the Sonic series in some cutscenes. Despite marking the beginning of a new era for the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the Blue Blur's latest outing never forgot to honor where he and his friends have been in the last 31 years (or how long they’ve actually been together and fighting Dr. Eggman canonically since time passes differently in their world).
The wheel comes full circle
All the references that Sonic Frontiers made to previous installments are thanks to writer Ian Flynn's wealth of lore knowledge that spans back decades. Flynn famously wrote the Blue Blur's comics at Archie and IDW (the latter's comics start after the events of Forces, after all), with each mention being what he terms a Flynn-ism. Case in point, the game makes several references to the Knuckles’ history in the series, including Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure.

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The best skills in Sonic Frontiers

sonic frontiers release date

Sonic has tried his hand at many genres over his career. He's obviously most well-known for his 2D and 3D high-speed platforming but has also starred in racers, sports games, fighters, and even pinball games. Sonic Frontiers is another 3D adventure, but with a heavier emphasis on RPG mechanics than ever before. Not only will you be leveling up Sonic's stats, including his speed, but you will also unlock new abilities via a skill tree.

The skill tree itself in Sonic Frontiers is not too complex. You have a starting point and two main branches, but the number of skill points each skill costs goes up exponentially. This makes selecting what skill to get first far more important since you likely won't get your next one for quite a while if you don't like it. Rather than pick a dud, here are the best skills to unlock in Sonic Frontiers.