Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2020 family film directed by Jeff Fowler, based on the popular video game franchise of the same name. The movie was about the blue alien speedster Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) befriending a local cop from Earth, Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). The two bond and go on a road trip to get Sonic's magic teleporting rings back in San Francisco before he gets captured by the evil Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey).
The sequel to that movie is now on the way with most of the creative team returning. With the Sonic game franchise being notorious for a plethora of important characters and obscure lore, it could be easy to lose track of who is who. So with that in mind, here's a list of the most important characters you should know for Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Sonic The Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz)
Sonic is a rambunctious teenager who also happens to be a blue alien with super speed and describes himself as a hedgehog. He escaped from his home planet as a little kid after his parental figure, Longclaw (Donna Jay Fulks), was shot by a rival echidna tribe. The echidnas were looking for Sonic to take his speed powers away from him. Since landing on Earth, he mostly spent life alone until he befriended Tom and went on their adventure to stop Robotnik. By the end of the film, Sonic banishes Robotnik to another planet, so he can continue to live safely on Earth with his new father figure, Tom.
Voice actor Ben Schwartz is no stranger to voicing '90s icons: he's also played Dewey Duck on Ducktales, and Leonardo in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Schwartz has been showing his range of both comedic and dramatic acting chops through all forms of entertainment in the past decade. However, he got his start with improv comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade. In fact, his fellow UCB alumni Adam Pally appears in these films as the clueless Deputy Wade Whipple.
Tom Wachowski (James Marsden)
Tom (nicknamed Donut Lord by Sonic) is the sheriff in the small town of Green Hills, named after the first level in the original Sonic game. His family has a legacy of working in the town's police department but strives for more. He is married to veterinarian Maddie (Tika Sumpter) and they have a very healthy relationship. By the end of the first film, he and Maddie invite Sonic to come live with them. Not only did his adventure with Sonic make him realize he wanted to stay in Green Hills, but he and Maddie are now Sonic's parental figures. The one downside is that Maddie's sister Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) hates Tom's guts and makes sure he never forgets that.
James Marsden is fairly comfortable having talking animated sidekicks, playing the human lead in the Easter movie Hop from 2011. More popularly though, he portrayed Cyclops in the original run of X-Men movies. Tom is an original character made for this movie, and judging by the trailers, looks to be sidelined a bit in the sequel to make room for more of the game characters.
Miles "Tails" Prower (Colleen O'Shaughnessey)
Tails is a two-tailed flying fox from Sonic's home world. Not much is known about him yet, but he did show up in the post credit scene of the first movie using a special tracker to find Sonic. Worrying that it might be too late already, he flies into Green Hills to go get Sonic. Tails is voiced by Colleen O'Shaugnessey, who has been voicing the character in cartoons and games for over a decade. As of now, she is also the only known actor to be reprising their role from the source material.
While the Sonic video games play fast and loose with canon, most games tell a standalone story. But that doesn't mean the character is different each time. Tails is traditionally Sonic's little brother figure who grows into being a trusted sidekick. Along with his knack for inventing gadgets, he is also the pilot of his personal biplane, The Tornado.
Dr. Ivo Robotnik/Eggman (Jim Carrey)
Dr. Robotnik is the smartest man on the planet and absolutely loves it. He constantly talks down to people simply because he knows there's nothing they can do about it. So when the Department of Defense contracts him to investigate some of Sonic's activity in Green Hills, he jumps at the chance. Armed with his intellect and egg-shaped robots, he took a quill from Sonic's head, so he can experiment with super speed. Robotnik is such a threat that Sonic planned to use his teleportation ring for him to escape to a Mushroom Planet. That planet looking suspiciously like Mushroom Hill Zone from the game Sonic and Knuckles.
At the end of the last movie, Sonic beats Dr. Robotnik by tapping into some of his "power," causing blue electricity to envelop him. With this power and one of his teleportation rings, Sonic banished Eggman to the Mushroom Planet. Alone in an alien world, Robotnik looses his grip on sanity and gets an appearance that's a spitting image of how he looks in the video games. Now that he's gone mad and still has access to his eggy robots, the stage is set for him to get his famous nickname, Dr. Eggman in the new movie.
At his core, Robotnik has always been a mad scientist, making it the perfect role for Jim Carrey.
Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba)
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Knuckles is the other game character making his debut in this movie. Being voiced by Idris Elba this go-round, he's never been more intimidating. Besides that he seems to be protecting something and has made an alliance with Robotnik and his assistant, Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub). Not much is known about this iteration of the character, but he does also have some connection to Sonic and his super speed. In the first movie, the leader of Knuckles' tribe, Pachacamac the Echidna, is the one to shoot down Longclaw and indirectly caused Sonic going to Earth in the first place.
In the games, Knuckles is a stubborn echidna devoted to protecting the Master Emerald, a magical artifact on his home Angel Island that makes the Island float in the sky. His devotion to protecting the emerald has led Robotnik to manipulate him multiple times to fight Sonic, so they're distracted while he does his evil schemes. Overtime, Knuckles becomes one of Sonic's closest friends and realizes that Robotnik only ever uses him. Judging by the trailers for Sonic 2, this film looks to be taking at least some of these elements from the game as a jumping off for the main plot.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is set for an April 8 release.