Pikachu is hitting the big screen but as a detective.
Back in my day, Pokemon was just a cartoon I got to watch on Saturday mornings with my Cheerios. Ash and Pikachu ventured around as Ash worked to become the best Pokemon trainer of all time. A recent release of Indigo League to Netflix has allowed me to indulge upon the television show that represented most of my childhood. However, Pikachu is trading in his Pokemon battle job on television for a new profession these days. The little electric Pokemon is hitting the big screen, but now as a detective.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Detective Pikachu. The little yellow guy first started sleuthing around in the Nintendo 3DS game ‘Great Detective Pikachu’ released earlier this year. The game debuted in the Nintendo eShop for Japan players back in February as a spinoff of the Pokemon franchise where Pikachu solved mysteries, drank coffee, and spoke like a human being.
With the booming success of recently released Pokemon Go, many conversations have been had in the past few weeks regarding where Nintendo could expand the franchise. Amidst Nintendo’s prosperity, Legendary Films locked down a deal with the company for film rights to the Pikachu movie. Nintendo is looking to strike some more gold.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KonKZlqznIg]
The trailer for the film was released in Japan and now Pikachu is plastered all over the internet with his newly acquired detective hat. As per the storyline of the video game, Pikachu accompanies a young boy named Tim as the two go on a hunt to find Tim’s lost father. It is unclear at the moment if the film will follow a similar plot line. No release date or big-ticket film professionals have been tagged with the film yet, but we do know that Universal will be working to release the move outside of Japan as well. Sources say that the film may also lead into further expansion of a Detective Pikachu franchise.
Filming of Detective Pikachu will begin next year.
