It appears like Pokemon: Detective Pikachu’s prospective sequel may still be in the works.
What is it about?
A 2019 mystery fantasy comedy film directed by Rob Letterman is titled Detective Pikachu. It is also known as Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and was published as Great Detective Pikachu in Japan after the first game.
The movie, which is loosely based on the 2016 video game of the same name and is part of the Pokémon brand, was written by Letterman, Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, and Derek Connolly from a scenario by Hernandez, Samit, and Nicole Perlman.
It was also produced by Legendary Pictures and Toho. It was the first live-action Pokémon movie and the first live-action Super Mario Bros. movie since the 1990s (1993).
In addition to Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe, and Bill Nighy playing live-action roles, Ryan Reynolds serves as Pikachu’s voice actor and face motion capture.
Tim Goodman, a former Pokémon trainer, and the show’s namesake Pokémon are shown as they work to discover what led to Tim’s father Harry’s strange disappearance.
2018 saw filming in Scotland, England, and Colorado from January through May. Warner Bros. distributed Detective Pikachu, which saw release in Japan on May 3 and the US on May 10 of this year.
IMAX, 4DX, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, and ScreenX movies. Since Pokémon Heroes (2003), this is the first Pokémon movie to be released in theaters in the United States, and it is the first movie distributed by Warner Bros. since Pokémon 3. (2001).
Reynolds’ acting and visual effects were praised, while the plot was criticized. The total revenue was $433 million. It is, behind Warcraft, another Legendary Pictures-produced video game adaptation with the second-highest box office total. A follow-up is being created.
Looks like a job for detective Pikachu
Before Detective Pikachu ever debuted in theaters, the sequel was formally confirmed in 2019 with Oren Uziel hired to pen the script.
After then, there were no further developments that suggested a promising development, and in a 2021 interview, actor Justice Smith said, “I believe we have to just kind of bury our dreams. I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Maybe it’s time to resurrect those dreams. When contacted by IGN, a Legendary representative said they “can only confirm that we are in active development as was reported by Polygon,” but shared no further information.
Detective Pikachu was created by the Legendary studio, which previously told Polygon that a sequel is still “in active development.”
Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez, the authors of Detective Pikachu, previously told Polygon that they would not be working on the follow-up, claiming that the issue was “complex” with “a lot of huge studio, corporate Pokémon rights things that we’re not privy to.”
It’s a discussion that is still going on today, according to Samit.
Ryan Reynolds provided the voice of the titular electric mouse in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, which also did well at the box office, earning $433 million worldwide. While video game movies haven’t had the finest track record, Joshua Yehl said in his 8/10 review for IGN that “this movie is by far the best example of how to do one well.”