Sonic the Hedgehog 2 comes to theaters in just a few weeks, and one of the most bizarre talking points heading into the video game sequel is whether or not it’s okay to find Knuckles sexy, now that he’s being voiced by Idris Elba.
In an interview with ScreenRant alongside his Space Force season 2 co-stars, franchise lead Ben Schwartz addressed whether or not the fan-favorite echidna was now officially a sex symbol. As you’d expect, the voice of Sonic admitted that it would be difficult for Elba to play a role and not have people find it attractive. He observed,
“Idris Elba taking an ugly role would take the amount of prosthetics that Jared Leto went through for House of Gucci. This is the right question to ask this group. He’s a bad boy … these are all correct statements.”
Space Force colleague Tawny Newsome noted she was even charmed by Elba’s role in Cats, widely lauded as one of the most misguided movies of recent years. As she dished,
“He made that very creepy role in Cats kind of sexy where I was like, ‘why are we hot for this cat man?,'”
Elba himself has clarified he’s not deliberately trying to have viewers go weak at the knees for Knuckles, but that’s not really up to him at the end of the day. We’ll find out how people feel when Sonic the Hedgehog 2 releases on April 8.
