Ryan Reynolds is not just going to be playing Deadpool for his whole career, as he’s been cast in an equally strange role: the voice of, not Pikachu, but Detective Pikachu in Legendary’s upcoming live-action Pokemon movie, to also be titled Detective Pikachu.
This film will not be like the traditional Pokemon films and TV shows which usually followed trainers who collected the cuddly but powerful creatures. No, this is based on the game Great Detective Pikachu, an investigative, Sherlock Holmes-esque spin on Pokemon‘s most famous character, who was a knack for solving mysteries.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Reynolds’ performance will be motion captured. He will join a young cast featuring Justice Smith (The Get Down, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies), while the film will be directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) and written by Nicole Perlman (Guardians Of The Galaxy) and Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls).
Unsurprisingly, Detective Pikachu is expected to be a franchise starter. The film was put into development after the widespread success of Pokemon Go, but considering how quickly the success of that app died out, it’s fair to wonder if that was merely a fad. However, Pokemon has always been relatively popular, even after its major early success in the 90s, so who knows?
At least with Reynolds on board, we can probably expect some fun. His Pikachu will team up with Smith’s character, who teams up with Pikachu to track down his kidnapped father. Even if the film doesn’t become the franchise starter Legendary wants, this could be a enjoyable – and maybe kind of strange – experiment.
#Peace.Love.DetectivePikachu
