Sir Patrick Stewart might be best known among geek circles for his roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the X-Men movies, respectively, but his full career spans more than half a century and a wide range of genres and media. Of particular note is his involvement in various Shakespeare adaptations, as he began his acting career through a run with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has returned to the Bard's works many times since.

Thanks to his distinctive and instantly recognizable voice, Stewart has also appeared in plenty of roles where you don't see his face at all, providing narration for Ted and Ted 2, and voicing various characters in Family Guy. Now we have confirmation of another voice acting role for Stewart... yes, he's the voice of poop.

Specifically, Stewart is lending his talents to Sony Pictures' upcoming emoji movie, which is now called The Emoji Movie (the original title was Emojimovie: Express Yourself). Stewart is voicing Poop, the poop emoji, who has been given a makeover that includes a bow tie and a set of eyebrows, as seen in the announcement tweet below.

THR reporter Borys Kit has also revealed that Stewart will be joined in the cast by Jennifer Coolidge (2 Broke Girls), Maya Rudolph (Bridesmaids), and Jake T. Austin (Justice League vs. Teen Titans). Rudolph, as confirmed by Sony, will be playing the smiley emoji, whose name in the movie is Smiler.

The central role in the voice, voiced by Deadpool's T.J. Miller, is an emoji called Gene who is capable of expressing a whole range of emotions, due to being born without a filter. Other voice talents include standup comedian Steven Knight (who plays a "meh" emoji), and The Late Late Show host James Corden as Gene's friend Hi-5.

Some fans may despair at Stewart deciding to take the role of a pile of poop, but the actor is well-known for his good sense of humor, so it's certainly not out of character for him to take a fun and silly role like this. Although The Emoji Movie has attracted ire since it was first announced, it's worth noting that the now-acclaimed animated adventure The Lego Movie was similarly maligned, so it might be best to hold off judgment until The Emoji Movie hits theaters.

The animated emoji adventure was co-written and directed by Anthony Leondis, who made his feature directorial debut with 2008's Igor. Patrick Stewart's Poop actually made his debut in the teaser trailer for The Emoji Movie, which was released last month to little fanfare.

Source: Sony Pictures, Borys Kit