It was an announcement that nobody saw coming. On August 10, Idris Elba – the award-winning actor whose credits include Luther and The Suicide Squad – unexpectedly revealed that he will voice Knuckles in the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie.
Unsurprisingly, the casting was met with equal parts surprise and excitement. Bringing Elba on board adds more star power to proceedings and his vocals should be a solid and amusing fit for Knuckles’ serious persona.
Needless to say, Elba’s casting got us thinking: which other actors should voice other Sonic characters in future movies? There are plenty of iconic, unusual and silly individuals to choose from and, in our view, lots of stars who would be perfect for certain roles.
Below, we’ve listed eight actors who we want to appear in future Sonic films, as well as the character that we think they’d be a match for. We have no insider information about future castings, but it’s always fun to speculate, right?
Tom Holland as Miles ‘Tails’ Prower
An unlikely option, given that Sonic’s sidekick was portrayed by regular Tails voice actor Colleen O’Shaughnessey in the first film’s post-credits scene. O’Shaughnessey hasn’t been confirmed to reprise this role in the second Sonic movie yet, but we suspect that she’ll return.
If Tails was voiced by someone else, though, Tom Holland seems like an ideal fit. Despite his rapid rise in recent years, the Spider-Man star comes across as good-natured and humble, so he’d be perfect for playing Tails.
Other roles, including Onward and Spies in Disguise, have shown that the British actor can portray innocent and inventor-type characters, too – which would help as Tails is a skilled craftsman with a pure heart.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Amy Rose
Another British star who seems like a solid fit for Sonic’s primary love interest. Waller-Bridge’s down-to-Earth personality, coupled with her ability to change her character’s persona and mood on a whim, would suit Amy Rose well.
As a Sonic character with a positive, can-do attitude who isn’t afraid to speak her mind or reveal her angry side, Amy Rose is one of the Sonic series’ surprisingly complex personas, and we feel that the award-winning Fleabag actress would do a stand-up job of portraying her. We’d even allow for Amy Rose breaking the fourth wall on a couple of occasions, too, in a call back to Waller-Bridge’s most famous role.
Chris Evans as Espio the Chameleon
With his calm, disciplined and serious demeanour, the de-facto leader of the Chaotix Detective Agency needs an actor who has experience in a similar role. Step forward Chris Evans, whose decade-long spell as Captain America makes him the perfect candidate to voice Espio.
Evans has shown that he can portray self-obsessed, stubborn or ruthless characters in the past, too, such as Scott Pilgrim’s Lucas Lee and Knives Out’s Ransom Drysdale. Embodying a character with similar characteristics in Espio, then, wouldn’t be a problem for the former Marvel star.
Millie Bobby Brown as Cream the Rabbit
She’s portrayed strong, female characters that belie her tender years in other projects, but Millie Bobby Brown as Cream is something we could see happening. Yes, she’s another UK actor on our list, but how much more polite can you get (stereotypically at least) than British people?
Cream may be respectful and sweet-natured, but she’s also fiercely loyal, brave and combative. Bobby Brown has shown on countless occasions that she possesses such attributes in Stranger Things and other productions, so she would have no problem voicing someone like Cream. You could even hire one of her fellow Stranger Things stars, such as Sadie Sink, to voice Cream’s Chao friend Cheese, too.
Hugh Jackman as Fang the Sniper
The iconic Australian actor is no stranger to voicing animated characters (Flushed Away, Missing Link), but we think casting Jackman as Fang the Sniper would be a humorous choice.
The gun-toting, flying bike-riding character (who also goes by Nack the Weasel in some countries) is a treasure hunter who longs to find the Chaos Emeralds so he can sell them on for a hefty fee. If these items make their way into the Sonic movies, especially now that Knuckles has appeared, Fang’s introduction might not be too far away as well.
Most movie fans will have seen Jackman in more serious roles than this, but hiring him as Fang would let him bust out his comedy acting skills and be a fun supporting antagonist to someone like Jim Carrey’s Dr. Eggman.
Scarlett Johansson as Rouge the Bat
This isn’t an unorthodox choice, admittedly, but only because we can actually visualize Johansson as Rouge. Her voice would fit so well with the femme fatale aspect of this character, so we can’t picture anyone else taking the role on.
Like Jackman, the Black Widow star has voice acting experience so this wouldn’t be an alien role to her. Add in the fact that Johansson has been cast as strong, ambitious, independent female characters throughout her career, and Rouge seems like a role that is ready made for her.
Given Rouge’s history of switching her allegiances throughout the Sonic series, we could easily see her jumping back and forth between Sonic and Dr. Eggman’s groups – and Johansson, with her capacity to embody both good and bad roles, would be great at either.
Jeff Goldblum as Big the Cat
(Image credit: Sega/Sonic Team)
A goofy, eccentric character calls for a similarly oddball actor – and there’s few better suited to such a task than Jeff Goldblum.
He’d be a supporting character rather than a major star, but we suspect that Goldblum would revel in voicing Big if he was cast. Provided that a future Sonic film introduced Big’s close friends in Amy Rose and Cream, the large, purple feline’s arrival wouldn’t be far-fetched.
With little care for items like the Chaos Emeralds or stopping Dr. Eggman of his own volition – Big is at his happiest fishing in peaceful locations – bringing him along for any potentially world-saving quests could lead to all manner of hilarious moments. And who would be better than Goldblum to deliver on such moments?
Adam Driver as Shadow the Hedgehog
We don’t feel like we have to sell this one to you. It’s Adam Driver as Shadow the Hedgehog. Try and think of a downside, we dare you.
Driver may not have as much voice acting experience as others on this list but, let’s be honest, he doesn’t need it. His deep voice is tailor-made for a brooding, indifferent and blunt persona – Star Wars‘ Ben Solo, anyone? – and you know he’d do justice to the character if he was hired.
If there’s to be a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (and the chances of this are good, in our view), Shadow would be an obvious candidate to include. He’d be a worthy adversary to Sonic and, with Ben Schwartz’s Sonic and Driver’s Shadow battling it out – physically and verbally – who wouldn’t want to see that?