Even though the nascent franchise is only one movie old, with the sequel not coming to theaters until next year, the Sonic the Hedgehog series is already establishing a name for itself as a property that generates entirely unexpected online controversies.
The opener was sent back to the drawing board and given a complete overhaul after fans vociferously rejected the nightmarish original design for the title character, which admittedly didn’t come as much of a surprise to the general public when the blue speedster looked positively haunting, but the studio certainly weren’t expecting the backlash.
This time around, Idris Elba’s silky smooth vocal delivery as Knuckles has been the hot topic of conversation, with the internet finding itself swooning over an anthropomorphized echidna. It’s a bizarre turn of events, but not a strictly unusual one given Elba’s generally smoldering presence, with director Jeff Fowler offering his thoughts on the matter to ComicBook.
“Oh my gosh. There are some things you just can’t anticipate. I love it so much, and my wife just loves it so much. Last night, she’s literally just passing me her phone and just pulling up all these sexy Knuckles. It’s hilarious and wonderful and perfect. So yeah. No one could have expected that that would be a line of conversation happening out there, but I’m very glad that it is.”
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is well-placed to blitz past the $319 million box office takings of its predecessor, especially when we’re getting an alarmingly alluring Knuckles and a more game-accurate Robotnik from Jim Carrey. Swooning for digital creations isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, but it sounds as though Fowler wasn’t expecting it to happen to his movie.