After years of rumbles and debates surrounding the creation of a live-action Pokémon movie it's finally becoming a reality. Thanks to the tremendous success of Pokémon Go, the bidding wars to obtain the rights to film the franchise's first live-action movie came to a head when Legendary Pictures moved in for the kill. Now, for better or worse, the global entertainment company and the Pokémon Company have confirmed that a deal has been reached.
With production of the movie set to begin in 2017, the film will apparently not be based around the main series video games nor take inspiration from the Pokémon anime series. Instead, the star of Pokémon's first romp into the world of non-animated cinema will be Detective Pikachu. Yup. I wouldn't fault anyone for forgetting about the character as the 3DS game of the same name (released earlier this year in Japan) has yet to be confirmed for a western release, but maybe that will soon change thanks to this movie? Whichever the case, time to restart those debates over who'd make the best Detective Pikachu English voice actor.
The movie will be distributed by Toho Pictures in Japan and Universal Pictures internationally. No plot or character details - or anything else regarding the movie - have yet been revealed, but we'll let you know once more information has been shared.