Pokemon is a massively popular franchise with fans all over the world. The brand has now made the jump to the big screen with the first live action Pokemon movie, Detective Pikachu. Considering how popular the Pokemon name is, the idea of the movies becoming a franchise of their own certainly has to be something that the studio and the Pokemon Company are hoping for. They're not the only ones, as the cast of Detective Pikachu is certainly hoping for sequels as well.
Ryan Reynolds says he had such a great time making Detective Pikachu that he'd love to do it again, although, he hopes more movies get made even if Pikachu is not part of them. When CinemaBlend asked Reynolds if we might see the world of Pokemon in a future film, he said...
I hope so. I really loved it. I loved making it. I loved being a part of it. Even if there's another version that doesn't involve Pikachu you could expand the Pokemon world in such a great way so I hope they do find ways to make more of these movies.
Pokemon has been a card game, a video game, and an animated series among other things. Each of these areas has been incredibly successful for the brand and so of course there is hope that there could be more films. One producer of Detective Pikachu wasn't even coy about the possibility. The idea of potentially creating a cinematic universe out of Pokemon is something that is being considered if the first movie is done right.
And considering how many hundreds of Pokemon characters there are, it would be easy to make multiple movies that spotlight different characters. You could make more movies than the MCU has made without ever showing the same Pokemon twice.
Of course, if there is a direct sequel to Detective Pikachu, the rest of the cast is also on board. Speaking with CinemBlend alongside Kathryn Newton, Justice Smith said that while they have no idea what the future holds for the franchise, they're hopeful they'll be back.
We both hope. We don't really know anything but we both hope.
Of course, Justice Smith also points out the most important thing, that it's all going to come down to box office numbers. In that regard Detective Pikachu is actually struggling a bit. The movie was projected to open with close to $100 million box office but it only ended up doing a bit over half that.
The holdover from Avengers: Endgame has been even stronger than analysts predicted and so even in its third week it was able to win the box office. Pikachu has done better overseas, but it's still not the runaway smash that many were expecting it be following the early buzz.
It will be interesting to see if the movie is able to become enough of a hit to justify another entry. If it does, at least the studio knows the cast is already on board.
Check out the cast's full comments to CinemaBlend in the video below.
