Idris Elba's velvety voice will be Knuckles in 'Sonic the Hedgehog 2'

Suicide Squad star, People’s Sexiest Man Alive, and the next James Bond (we hope) Idris Elba announced on Tuesday that he has signed on to voice the character Knuckles the Echidna in the sequel to 2020’s Sonic The Hedgehog.

Posting to social media only a picture of the character’s iconic, er, knuckles, Idris tweeted, “Knock, knock…” and hashtagged it #SonicMovie2 and #Knuckles. He also Instagrammed it.

The Luther star and Golden Globe winner joins the already-announced cast that includes Jim Carrey, Shemar Moore, James Marsden, Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, and Adam Pally.

This is the voice casting fans have been waiting for with many of them taking to Twitter to express how perfect Idris is for the role, but also what this means in terms of representation.

One user wrote, “Why Idris Elba being cast as Knuckles is important: Despite it being entirely erased from his character in new media, Knuckles was black-coded and took a lot from black culture (music, aesthetics, etc…) Not only is this representation, but not letting Knuckles lose his identity.”

According to a leaked synopsis of the Paramount movie, Elba’s Echidna will team up with Jim Carrey’s return as Dr. Robotnik “in search for an emerald that has the power to both build and destroy civilizations.”

Paramount is expected to release Sonic The Hedgehog 2 on April 8, 2022, so Knuckles has lots of time to collect all the Chaos Emeralds until then.

BEFORE YOU GO: Margot Robbie says Idris Elba loves dad jokes

[video_embed id='2251700']BEFORE YOU GO: Margot Robbie says Idris Elba loves dad jokes[/video_embed]