Here's a fun statistic. Sonic the Hedgehog is the third highest grossing movie of the year domestically. Technically it's the number two movie of 2020, behind Bad Boys for Life, since 1917 was technically released in 2019. It's hard to believe after the year we've had that Sonic the Hedgehog, and its tremendous success, is actually fairly recent. However, the movie did so well that a sequel is already in the plan, and following a rumor that a popular character from the Sonic the Hedgehog game series will be appearing in the next movie, fans already have a voice actor in mind. They want to see Dwayne Johnson as Knuckles.
I feel like most movies must at least consider hiring Dwayne Johnson at some point in pre-production. He's, quite literally, the biggest movie star in the world and I would guess every movie would love to have him on board. However, this simple idea, to cast The Rock as the voice of Knuckles has received an incredible amount of attention and a lot of fans seem to be getting behind it.
On spec, casting Dwayne Johnson as Knuckles the Echidna isn't the craziest idea. While Sonic is known for speed, Knuckles, by comparison, is a character known for strength, so giving him a voice actor that we connect with physical strength makes some sense. And then, of course, there's the fact that Dwayne Johnson already has a connection to the films, as The Rock was part of a popular joke in the first movie where a confused Sonic asked if The Rock had become President. So then following up the joke by actually casting him makes the joke even funnier.
This may all seem like good fun, but the fact of the matter is that every once in a while these casting ideas that start with fans do actually end up happening. If the idea gains enough momentum the filmmakers take notice and sometimes they can actually happen. And The Rock has previously stated that he was a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, so he might love the idea of voicing a character in the franchise.
Of course, all this is contingent on the idea of Knuckles appearing in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in the first place. Right now, that idea is simply a rumor, but it's certainly one that makes sense. The post-credits scene to the first movie introduced Sonic's popular video game sidekick Tails and the game franchise has a host of other anthropomorphic animal characters who could appear, and Knuckles is probably the next most well known after Tails. At different points in the games and other media Knuckles has been a rival to Sonic as well as an ally, so the next movie could make him the new big bad, but end in a way that the pair could work together if we eventually get a Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Dwayne Johnson himself has yet to chime in on this idea, but if he's at least willing to consider it, who knows, we could actually see The Rock voice Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Is he the right choice? Let us know in the poll below.
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