After decades of building a large fanbase through video games, trading cards, animated stories and more, the Pokemon franchise is finally delivering its first theatrical live action movie, Detective Pikachu. The first trailer for the adaptation of the Great Detective Pikachu video game dropped last November, and although we’re still four months away from it being released to the masses, Legendary Pictures has already set a sequel in motion. Pika-Two, anyone? (Not an original joke, but it had to be done.)
According to THR, Legendary has tapped Oren Uziel to write Detective Pikachu 2, although no details about his take on the story were revealed. This is the latest franchise that Uziel gets to leave his stamp on. His resume already includes 22 Jump Street and The Cloverfield Paradox, and along with penning the upcoming live action Sonic the Hedgehog movie, he’s also working on a new Supergirl movie and the Mortal Kombat reboot.
Evidently Legendary and Warner Bros are confident enough in Detective Pikachu that they’re willing to get the gears turning on a sequel this early. Given that the first trailer collected over 100 millions views online and received a lot of attention on social media, I can’t say I blame them. If Detective Pikachu ends up being a hit among audiences, then no doubt the sequel will get the official green light, meaning we could see it by 2021 at the earliest. There have also been rumors about Detective Pikachu spawning a full-blown Pokemon cinematic universe, and if that’s true, one wonders if Detective Pikachu 2 could lay specific groundwork for that.
Just like your average Pikachu, Detective Pikachu’s eponymous protagonist, voiced by Ryan Reynolds, is an electrically-charged mouse-like creature. Unlike your average Pikachu, he’s also a super smart crime solver and can communicate like a human, although only Justice Smith’s character, Tim Goodman, can understand him speaking English. Together, these two will work together to find Tim’s father, Harry, who has mysteriously disappeared. While it’s a good bet that Detective Pikachu 2 would pair this special Pikachu and Tim with each other again, it could also be fun to see Pikachu helping someone else solve their own mystery.
Detective Pikachu’s main cast also includes Kathryn Newton as reporter Lucy Stevens (who’s accompanied by her Psyduck), Ken Watanabe as Detective Yoshida, Paul Kitson as Harry Goodman, Karan Soni as Jack and Omar Chapparro as Sebastian, along with Bill Nighy, Rita Ora, Suki Waterhouse, Chris Geere and Rob Delaney in undisclosed roles. Goosebumps’ Rob Letterman directed and co-wrote the Detective Pikachu script with Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez.
Detective Pikachu will be released in theaters on May 10, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on the movie. Check out our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies open this year.
