Knuckles is not an Echidna (Sonic the Hedgehog 2) #shorts

Knuckles the Echidna is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog film series produced by Paramount Pictures and its spin-offs. He is an anthropomorphic alien echidna warrior with super strength and is the last of his kind; he is also well-known as a lonely traveler and treasure hunter.

A proud and honorable warrior, Knuckles spent most of his life searching for Sonic the Hedgehog, believing him to be the key to finding the Master Emerald, which he saw as his ancestral birthright. To this end, he would form an alliance with Dr. Robotnik—one that would later prove to be a scheme for Robotnik to take the Master Emerald for himself. Knuckles befriended Sonic afterward, and joined forces with him and Miles "Tails" Prower to defeat Robotnik. After this, the trio formed a new order to protect the Master Emerald from evil.

Concept and creation
When voicing Knuckles, Idris Elba looked to mine for backstory and identity, and find "everything that an actor needs in order to create a character and a kind of craft performance". According to director Jeff Fowler, Elba was eager to absorb it all and workshop his portrayal of Knuckles into the definitive version of the character. In Fowler's own words, Elba "absolutely nailed it" when voicing Knuckles.

When it came to including Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Fowler took Knuckles as seriously as Elba did. Accordingly, "Knuckles provides me with plenty of opportunities to just go hog wild with spectacle". Fowler also described Knuckles as someone "who has power, and in his many ways is just better suited for combat than Sonic is" and "whose entire existence is about honor and about being a warrior". Fowler considers that a difficult challenge for Sonic because, as of the end of Sonic the Hedgehog, "Sonic has been in one fight". Fowler would further state "that does not turn you into a superhero overnight". Because of this, there is an interesting dynamic in the movie "where Knuckles is just a force of nature, and Sonic is out of his element at first because Knuckles is just more than he can handle". To Fowler, this dynamic between Sonic and Knuckles creates a dramatic sort of material and a great foundation to build a movie story around.

The inclusion of more iconic moments and elements from the Sonic series in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 also influenced Knuckles' personality. In an interview, Fowler described him as "a heavy, and really just making him the badass that he is in the earliest versions of him, going all the way back to the ’90s". Combining this with the visuals of iconic and familiar moments of action from the Sonic series, is something that Fowler says he would "attribute to the Sonic-ness of it all".

Elba also originally wanted to give Knuckles a "squeaky" voice. However, the idea was immediately turned down by others working on the film, leading Elba to try several other voices and accents for Knuckles until he settled on the final one.

Knuckles is an anthropomorphic echidna with predominantly red fur that covers most of his body, a black and pointy nose on his peach-furred muzzle, a white crescent-shaped patch of fur on his chest, and purple eyes. His eyes in particular glow red whenever he utilizes his chaos energy-based powers. He also has seven dreadlock-like spines around the sides and back of his head, broad shoulders, and a medium-sized, tri-crooked tail.

For attire, Knuckles wears two large white boxing gloves with spikes attached to them. He also wears red and yellow mountain boots. Each has the top folded down to reveal a soft green interior. The soles are light gray and each possess a gray, hextuple-bolted plate on top. When he was much younger, Knuckles donned a wooden tribal mask with feathers on it that was shaped in the form of a skull. On his white gloves and white footwear, he wore grayed-out sports tape. Additionally, Knuckles wore green cuffs on his ankles and wrists, as well as a beaded necklace. On parts of his face, dreadlocks, masks, Knuckles wore some white paint.

Hailing from Mobius, Knuckles was raised as a warrior amongst his tribe, the echidnas, an ancient order of heroes who had been feuding with the owls for centuries over the echidnas' Master Emerald, a weapon of ultimate power that the owls had hidden away somewhere. During his childhood, the echidnas managed to locate Longclaw, the last of the owl warriors, whom they prepared to go after to get her secrets on the Master Emerald. While Knuckles wished to join his tribe in their battle, his father told him to remain behind and await the true moment where he would honor his tribe. However, Knuckles' father and his tribe died on that very day, leaving Knuckles as the last of the echidnas.

From then on, Knuckles would spent his life searching the galaxy for Sonic the Hedgehog, the apprentice of Longclaw, whom he believed to the key to finding the Master Emerald
#sonicthehedgehog #knuckles #idriselba