Whoops, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 just got awesome: Idris Elba is playing Knuckles

The first Sonic The Hedgehog movie only offered the briefest tease of Sonic’s little buddy Tails (a.k.a. Miles “Tails” Prower), but the sequel is more than making up for the original’s lack of Sonic’s friends by making sure to introduce two of the only good ones. Tails will be there, we assume, and back in April we got some definitive proof that Knuckles The Echidna—the badass tough guy member of Sonic’s crew—would also be flying by (he can use his hair to glide, for whatever reason). Now we have some even better news on that front: Knuckles is going to be played by Idris Elba. He’s a good actor! He’s charismatic! He played the guy with magic gun Legos in The Suicide Squad and Stringer Bell on The Wire! What the hell is he doing playing Knuckles The Echidna?!

We’re just going to stop looking a gift horse in the mouth on this one and appreciate the fact that Elba is not so precious about his career that he would turn down a chance to play Knuckles (not to mention the fact that Elba has also presented the internet with a 2021 remake of that “Arthur clenching his fist” meme). Elba revealed this news on Instagram, and that’s pretty much the extent of the information we have about it. We don’t know how big of a role Knuckles will have in the plot of the sequel, we don’t know if he’ll be a feminist again like in that recent cartoon, and we don’t know if his appearance means we’ll have to listen that excruciating pumpkin song from Sonic Adventure 2. All we know is that Knuckles is fucking cool and Idris Elba is fucking cool.

Now, time for the real question: If we’re getting more of Sonic’s supporting characters, does that mean Shadow The Hedgehog is on the way? Maybe he’s introduced as a villain in Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and then he has to team up with the good guys in the eventual Sonic 3? (Shadow The Hedgehog is like Sonic with a gun, but he’s not cool unless you’re into edgelord bullshit.)