Voice of Tails to voice Tails in Sonic movie sequel

Colleen O’Shaughnessey, longtime voice of Sonic the Hedgehog’s sidekick Tails, will voice the character in the upcoming Sonic theatrical sequel. She joins Ben Schwartz, who voices the hedgehog, and Idris Elba, previously announced to voice Knuckles the Echidna. Tails was teased at the very end of the first movie — and also in the first teaser for the sequel, revealed last February.

While it might seem unsurprising that O’Shaughnessey voices Tails in the movie after doing so since 2014 (and in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie’s post-credits stinger), many voice actors do not reprise their roles when the video game or cartoon hits the big screen. For instance, Chris Pratt was recently revealed to be the voice of Mario in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie, while Charles Martinet, the man who has voiced Mario since the 1990s, will simply have only a small role. It speaks to a larger trend of casting recognizable celebrities in animation, instead of voice actors.

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie came out on Feb. 14, 2020 — after being delayed due to the massive outcry about Sonic’s design from the first trailer. Despite that first visceral reaction to the initial trailer, the movie did well at the box office and received mostly positive reviews. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will speed into theaters on April 8, 2022.