The first live-action Pokémon movie, Detective Pikachu, has finally got its lead and it’ll be… Ryan Reynolds.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Reynolds has signed on to star as the titular Pokémon alongside Justice Smith, who will be seen in the upcoming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Kathryn Newton (HBO’s Big Little Lies).
The plot for Detective Pikachu sees Smith enlisting the help of Detective Pikachu to find his kidnapped father. Newton will play a “sassy” journalist who also helps the pair on their quest to find Smith’s father.
THR sources also state that Detective Pikachu will be motion captured and not Reynolds in a Pikachu costume.
The film from Legendary Pictures starts filming in mid-January in London. It will be directed by Rob Letterman who directed Goosebumps, the kids’ film starring Jack Black.
Detective Pikachu is a spinoff of the highly-successful (and profitable) Pokémon series, where players solve a mystery with the titular character. The game has only been released in Japan, and The Pokémon Company has not announced any plans to bring the title to the West. The game was supposed to be released in an episodic fashion, but there hasn’t been a new installment since it debuted in February 2016. The game was reportedly in development for three years.
When The Pokémon Company first announced the Detective Pikachu game, many fans petitioned for Danny DeVito to be the English voice actor of Pikachu in the worldwide release of the game. And those cries for the veteran actor grew louder after The Pokémon Company confirmed the upcoming film.
The list of names rumored to be voicing Detective Pikachu in the film included some top box-office draws, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But it’s safe to say that no one saw Ryan Reynolds’ name being pulled for this role.
Detective Pikachu is set to release in 2018.
So what do you think of Reynolds playing Detective Pikachu? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
