There’s a mystery afoot, and those amateurs Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot aren’t up to snuff for the job. No, only detective Pikachu has what it takes, and we will all get to watch the master sleuth in action summer after next, as Universal has solidified a release date of May 10, 2019, for the upcoming video game adaptation.
Starring Ryan Reynolds as the beloved icon Pikachu, Justice Smith (JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM) and Kathryn Newton (BIG LITTLE LIES), the movie is the first ever live-action movie based on the mega-popular video game series, which has millions of fans around the world. GOOSEBUMPS director Rob Letterman is directing off a script from GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY scribe Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch writing the script.
Releasing the movie on that date is a bold move, as it comes one week after the fourth AVENGERS movie, with will be a direct follow-up to next summer’s AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. AVENGERS 4 will surely have a massive opening, so PIKACHU will no doubt be playing for second place the following week. But Universal must have confidence in the material and faith that the fanbase will turn out and make it a strong competitor to AVENGERS. Pikachu has been a king (an adorable one at that) in the video game world for some time, but I think he’ll have a tougher challenge against all the Avengers at the movies.
DETECTIVE PIKACHU isn’t’ exactly the first movie live action movie I would see from the Pokémon universe, and I figured they would pull from the more popular games, which involved players running around battling other trainers using their caught Pokémon. Maybe it's the whole "throwing balls at animals" and then making them work as "prisoners with jobs" angle they think may be a tough sell to mainstream audiences.
DETECTIVE PIKACHU arrives May 10, 2019.