Warner Bros. has revealed the official logo for Detective Pikachu. Starring Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) in the title role, with Ken Watanabe (Godzilla), Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and Kathryn Newton (Blockers), the film is from director Rob Letterman (Goosebumps, Gulliver’s Travels) and writers Nicole Perlman and Letterman, with Eric Pearson and Tom McCarthy having completed the production polishes.
The movie was originally set up at Universal due to their partnership with Legendary, but as that fell apart, the project moved over to Warner Bros. But either way, it’s still a downright bizarre way to start a Pokemon franchise. The story of Pokemon is built into the main title, which is that a pokemon trainer has to become the very best (like no one ever was) and defeat other trainers. It’s basically the premise for an underdog sports movie, and you could still put Pikachu, the most recognizable pokemon, front and center. Instead, you’ve got this weird thing where Pikachu is a detective.
It’s also weird that he’s got Ryan Reynolds as his voice when it’s been well-established that most pokemon can only say their names. So either they hired Ryan Reynolds to only say “Pikachu” in different ways, or you’ll have Deadpool’s voice coming out of an adorable cartoon characters. It’s very, very strange.
And what kind of mystery will Pikachu be solving in this story? Here’s what Dark Horizons is reporting:
Justice Smith will star as a teen whose father is kidnapped which leads him to team up with the yellow furball Pikachu (the voice of Ryan Reynolds) and a young journalist (Kathryn Newton) in order to find him.
Again, why the first live-action pokemon movie isn’t a sports-based comedy is beyond me, but we’ll see what the film has to offer. Detective Pikachu is slated to open on May 10, 2019, and also stars Suki Waterhouse, Rita Ora, and Bill Nighy.
