Legendary Gets Rights to Pokémon Live Action Movie

Legendary Entertainment has won a bid to create the first official live action Pokémon film.

Legendary will be partnering with The Pokémon Company to create a live action film based on “Great Detective Pikachu,” a game which came out in Japan in early February, but has not seen a release elsewhere.

Between this news and the overwhelming success of Pokèmon GO, Pokèmon seems to be experiencing a mainstream resurgence that rivals its popularity during the 90s.

Few details are known about the film so far, other than Universal Pictures will be handling the film’s distribution outside of Japan. This coincides with Nintendo’s partnership with Universal to create Nintendo themed attractions in Universal parks (although the Pokémon Company is its own autonomous company.)

We can only hope that Legendary and The Pokémon Company make the right choice and cast Danny DeVito as the voice of Pikachu for English audiences.

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283 thoughts on “Legendary Gets Rights to Pokémon Live Action Movie”

    • I agree. I wish it wasn’t Detective pikachu…I was really hoping for a new story or something similar to Pokemon origins but in live action form…

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      • I honestly think this could kill any sort of real Pokemon movie in the future if it’s bad. You just don’t start off a live action series with a spin off…those come after. And Pokemon is plural, it’s not supposed to be all about stupid pikachu.

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        • Exactly!!! I wanted some epic CGI battles, some running from team rocket, some beautiful scenery of big cities and places that are familiar to us from the main games… BUT NOT THIS THIS CAN VERY WELL RUIN THE WHOLE FRANCHISE

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          • It’s based on the Detective Pikachu Game in Japan it won’t have anyone most of us know.

          • Well yeah not in this movie, but in a real Pokemon movie based on the games/manga sure misty could

          • Dude a Movie won’t kill the franchise Go alone has boosted Nintendo’s profits by 20% Pokemon isn’t going anytime soon.

          • I’m not saying kill a franchise. I’m saying marketing value and appeal will go down by a lot.

            Of course, Pokemon is here to stay and it’s been more popular than ever in the past two weeks thanks to GO.

        • I like the idea I mean who cares it’s Pokemon here out of all Nintendo games it is the main pillar that holds it and most of its other Companies out of Bankruptcy.

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  1. This is pretty cool. It will either be extremely good, or extremely bad.

    I’ll be watching where this goes.

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      • I wouldn’t say it just yet. Detective Pikachu was pretty popular. There is also easy ways to make it as it’s a spinoff crime drama. I wouldn’t judge it till we see more of it.

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          • There’s been 1 of like 6 episodes released for the game. The plot of a Boy searching for his probably dead father after an accident and meeting a new friend along the way who could possibly be possessed by his father’s soul, is one that would definitely sell. Especially in Japan.

    • One thing I will do Watch this and buy it when out but will it be in theaters or no like the Normal movies on CN (Cartoon Network)

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  2. Eh. I don’t know how I feel about a Live Action Pokemon Movie. I’m glad their using Detective Pikachu because the story already has a premise, which would be eaay to bring to the real world. I’m rather worried about this project. I hope it doesn’t become a shitty kids movie.

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  3. I still don’t see how you can put a human next to a pokemon and it not look cheesy irl. Shade cell is my favorite.. probably won’t work. I hate other versions though. It never looks real

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    • I don’t understand how they could base a movie around a talking Pikachu with 50 million other ideas that they could use from one of the most successful franchises ever…

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  4. Ok first things first… No matter if this movie is good or bad, it will not ruin the franchise. Remember the super mario bros. Movie? (I wouldnt be suprised if you didnt) that didnt ruin super mario bros, and thats abou as bad as it could get. Honestly, im glad they are doing detective pikachu. I feel like doing a story thats alot more down to earth and realistic in a live action realistic setting is definitely the way to do it. Otherwise, we could easily get a cgi crapfest (like gods of egypt, or clash of the titans). I think we should just keep our eye on it, and keep our expectations wary.

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  5. Bad movies ruin that franchise’s viability as a movie. While I doubt this live action+CGI adaptation will kill the anime movie series, it will definitely put a stop to more live action Pokemon movies should it bomb.

    Of course this is assuming it turns out bad. If it turns out great then looks like we’re in for more Detective Pikachu in the future.

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  6. I’m all for a live-action but based on Detective Pikachu?? That sounds like it’s gonna be really childish. They could have made a gen 1 Kanto League movie with some Marvel-like comedy and that would have been good!

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    • Who plays pokemon so early in the morning?? If the game just came out I’d understand but damn Ian… go do some chores e.e

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      • I wake up a 5 am out of habit what else am I supposed to do, I can’t go back to sleep and I’m naturally drawn to battle even if it destroys my psyche
        it’s a crippling addiction

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  7. I have to admit Detective Pikachu movie was probably the right call as far as first movies go. It’s already set in a world that’s similar to ours and doesn’t necessarily deal with the typical trope for the series. It’s a good way to test the waters rather than just jumping and flopping. If tis does bad then oh well and they get over it, but if it does well then they can seriously start thinking about a movie that features the traditional Pokemon story with a league and battling. I’d say the three things they need to watch out for as far as moving on from this movie are casting, the actual script , and how the Pokemon look. this movie cold be easy to write as it’s basically just a detective movie that just happens to have Pokemon in it. Once they dive more fully into the Pokemon world it’l get tricky.

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      • We can only hope. I think when it comes these kinds of movies it’s hard to imagine the characters in the real world without taking away from their cuteness and overall appeal.

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        • True but actors who could it be here are my options depending on personality

          Funny or sarcastic- Danny Devito, Seth Macfarlane, Josh Gad, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Adam Sandler

          Serious- Morgan Freeman

          Action- Channing Tatum, Matt Damon, Mark Walburg.

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          • Ok aside from Jonah Hill and Adam Sandler I like all of them lol I think Danny Devito, Seth McFarland, or Seth Rogen would be good choices for Pikachu. Not sure about the the kid that plays his partner yet though lol

          • Yeah I mean Seth Rogen normally is in R rated movies he is less likely but I like them but I like them best

          • He’s been in movies like the Kung-fu Panda series so I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to have him be in it. That said you are prolly right that he’d be one of the least likely to be in it.

    • Honestly I disagree. I think this is totally a slap in the face for fans and is just a cash grab at how easily marketable pikachu is rather than actually putting some creative thought into how to make a real pokemon movie work. The idea of pokemon talking is stupid and is going to feel very dumb if they ever transition to traditional pokemon movies where they don’t. And based on what I’ve seen of this game, it’s hardly about any pokemon other than pikachu. Pikachu may be the mascot of the series, but it is not the only one out there.

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      • People like you drive me crazy sometime. You aren’t even going to give it a chance, just because its not what YOU WANT or think it should be. Give it a dang chance before you bash it, and Nintendo’s creativity. O.K 🙂

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        • Woahhhhh…calm down….I didn’t say I wasn’t going to give it a chance, I’m just analyzing their choice and saying I think this is a mistake.

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    • Ok……sigh…..here’s the problem with all the live action trailer that get put on YouTube…….well some of them anyway…… Some of the problems is that they are made to be too serious. Many people for whatever reason want series like Pokemon or the Power Rangers to be shown as a serious thing on the big screen. The problem is that they are not serious in anyway. Yes they can have dramatic scenes and what not, but if you try to make them what they aren’t then it turns into a hot mess. Production aside (because that’s atrocious too) the way they are presenting Pokemon in this particular trailer is far too serious and it just comes off lame and cheesy. What a Pokemon movie needs to be is a movie for children. It can certainly have specific joke that are meant for parents and adults like other children movies do, but it needs to stay just that for children. Making it into something that it isn’t won’t work. It needs to essentially be a disney/pixar/dreamworks film in order to do well.

      P.S. I don’t me an actual diney/pixar/dreamworks film I just mean in that spirit.lol

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    • If they can get a detective move right with proper advertising and promotion and don’t over do it, it could be a really good start for the future of the movies. The Apokélypse trailer was a project for a university so of course it’s not going to look that good. If they focus on detective Pikachu and keep battling to a minimum right now, the future is bright.

      Reply
  8. *At game freak* Guy1: GUYS OUR RECENT MOVIES HAVE BEEN REALLY BAD AND HAVENT GOTTEN MUCH MONEY!!! What do we do now?
    Guy2:Make more movies?
    Guy1:No you idiot that would be worse
    Guy3: Well at least it wont be live action
    Guy1: Wait…live action? GENIUS
    Guy3: no dude wtf just no
    Guy1: too late im already giving the rights to legend
    Guy3: *infinite facepalms*
    Guy2: we are doomed…

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  9. Boring, Corocoro is roughly three weeks away
    The sooner we chip away the last of the summer months the sooner we get to Sun and Moon

    Reply
  10. Well this live action move is not out yet, just like Paper Mario: Color Splash, and Metroid Prime: Federation Force.

    Let’s give all of these projects a chance! They might turn out great! <3

    (May or may not be sarcastic.)

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  11. https://youtu.be/d8_uFtnRHE4
    Let me just be brutally honest
    This actually wasn’t a total travesty
    Paper Mario was always good with very tantalizing areas that just ooze personality (and not for nothing I’m a sucker for Haunted Mansion levels) but still lost points for the uninspiring combat system
    I am willing to see how this turn out but I am not 100% sold yet

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  12. I want to battle someone ’cause I have the worst luck with Free Battle matches

    Singles – friggin’ Mega Mewtwo Y, shiny event Raikou, and shiny event Yveltal

    Rotation – All underlevelled. I had to forfeit, it wasn’t fair.

    Just went through a decent Rotation Battle with someone’s Mega Charizard Y, Swampert, Luxray, and Leafeon.

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  13. So I finally got an Iphone, and got Pokemon Go…
    Except there’s nothing around me. No Pokestop or anything, so I can’t advance past that point.
    Rip me

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    • Do you drive? My wife and I drag our friends into the neighboring cities because we barely have anything here. I have to literally be on the freeway to catch something or on our main street lol

      Reply
      • I can drive. Tonight I’ll probably go to the nearest Pokestop I can find just to continue with the setup process [I have to go out anyways]. My hope is that there will be some pokemon around me though! I really don’t want to have to drive everywhere.
        College is coming soon though, so there should be stuff there! 🙂

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        • College is a great place to be. I am at a college campus right now and there are ~40 Pokestops and 7 gyms in the vicinity. A metro is also nearby so it easy to commute to other places and add a bit variety to the dex.

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    • There’s not Pokestop near me as well, I have to drive to the nearest one.
      But I don’t mind, me and my bff go out together to hit them, and we just walk around our neighborhood and catch mons

      Reply
    • I have nothing near me as well. The most I play is when I actually have to go somewhere.

      I haven’t specifically set out of my house just for he sake of catching Pokemon yet though.

      Reply
  14. So here’s a hyper analysis of new Pokemon and their potential evos:

    Bounsweet is the simplest of them all: it resembles cottonee and cherubi (as many have said) so a single evolution seems likely.

    Comfey: shares similarities with flabebe and klefki, and has a little more uniqueness in design (pointing to no evos) like klefki. Game freak isn’t going to create a key ring and lei Pokemon just to evolve them into something else. Theyre too special and focused. This is similar to spiritomb in a sense.

    Mudsdale: could have a prevo like rapidash but could also be a standalone like bouffalant. Both are completely possible though I’m leaning more towards a prevo.

    Bewear: definite prevo or nothing. No chance of an evolution given its size and focused concept.

    Mimikkyu: way too gimmicky to evolve. It’s like smeargle, castform, etc. it’s ability is too special and the whole concept is extremely focused.

    Pokemon like rockruff, a puppy, have potential up the wazoo to evolve into a bigger dog. Since a Pokemon staying in its “baby” form in that universe would be odd unless that was the gimmick itself. These Pokemon introduced on the 19th are very special and none seem like babies besides bounsweet.

    Nobody asked for this, and it’s long, but I like sharing my thoughts. Let me know what you think!

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    • I can definitely agree with you on most except Mimikyu. My gut feeling is telling me that it evolves.
      Of course, if it doesn’t, it’s not too big of a deal, but I just have a really big feeling that it will evolve, so I can’t ignore it.

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      • Oh yay! At least someone is holding out hope! Either way, I absolutely love the thing, so I’ll get it either way. These Alola Pokemon to me are hit or miss. I dislike many of them, but in a huge fan of a select few.

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        • No worries, hope is still here :3
          And yeah, I might do the same, it’ll be the exception since I only use Pokemon that evolve on my teams, but Mimikyu is worth it <3
          And I'm actually the opposite xD I like many of them but don't care for a select few, like Bruxish and Bewear. (but they'll most likely grow on me and there are aspects of them I can respect even if the design is meh)

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  15. For whatever angelic forces possessed me to do this I had an idea for Comfey’s Evolution
    Puahana
    Fairy/Grass
    I see a petite female humanoid creature with the same light green and orange coloration similar to Comfey’s body, around the waist would be a wisp like grass skirt of leaves with a belt of flowers
    Long arms and hung around its wrist would be a cordial ring of flowers which it can swing freely, it has large turquoise eyes with orange irises and two long puffy pigtails each bound by a flower ring

    each morning Puahana collect flowers for their rings, the more flowers bound to them increase their energy, in battle they vigorously spin and twirl to overwhelm opponents
    Before the sun sets they scatter seeds to replace the flowers they used

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  16. I would like to introduce you all to my other google account Meet Diglett bros. I’ll be on and off both but I won’t go after y’all in talks with both.

    Reply
  17. This has been bugging me for awhile, but can you guys reconsider the types of ads you show here? I have an adblocker and it is picking up to 1000 + ads every page, and some are still showing more… imagine that for the person without ad blockers… it’s discourteous to people who refuse ads and people who just wanna browse blocker free… It is still slowing my stuff down each time i use the page. If you want ads, i understand they bring in revenue, but the VR ones are invasive, thank you for listening~

    Reply
  18. I wish we could time travel to November get info and post it as leaks in this time it wouldn’t affect much except are opinions of them varying!

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        • And besides I have a system
          1: travel a month AFTER the release date so that Bulbapedia has nearly everything documented
          2: bring a flash drive and copy paste every name, image, stat, attack of each Pokemon, and as much info as my gourd can hold
          3: return to the past
          4: instead of blindly leaking, propose “Fakemons” with all the details
          5: and every weekend I’d drop hints of new Pokemon and let people decide if real
          6: ???
          7: Profit

          Reply
          • That sounds like a plan I would even if I couldn’t go that far would go for next reveals and throw it at us now

          • We could look for the Starter final Evos.and show everyone You Were right or as I would like to say you were WRONG!!!

  19. https://youtu.be/7gjXLenzDmQ
    FINALLY MEGA HERACROSS FOOTAGE
    granted very very little but I discovered that it either performs Bullet Seed or Pin Missile by green energy connecting the tips of both horns and in the middle and the attack being materialized and discharged

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    • Ok how in the world does Ash change his clothes with that belt on him…..I can kind see it for the actual clothes he puts on if there’s a little space around him, but there’s no way he put that space suit or whatever on without getting the belt off lol

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      • Let me tell you a little sumthin bout me
        As a kid I had several Johto Pokemon I absolutely adored, Donphan, Elekid, Quagsire, Gligar, Sentret, Delibird and lastly Heracross
        Heracross was just my all time favorite, I doodled Heracross on nearly every table, watched any episode with Heracross religiously back when this ancient technology existed called “tapes” and for my…. 7th birthday I finally got that Heracross horn attack figure (plus openable back with wings)
        It wasn’t until Pokemon Sapphire when I officially and permanently got back into Pokemon and finally found one in the Safari Zone
        I tried my luck with Honey Trees in DPPT but to no avail

        So it’s pretty obvious I have bit of a History with Heracross, granted it died down when I discovered Rhyperior, then that’s when my Ground Type career began and it died down

        But now I am a veteran trainer and have mastered Heracross and its Mega Form as the star lead of my Fighting type team “The Brick Breakers”

        Reply
        • Interesting. I like Heracross too. The mega design is interesting too and skill link is great. I kinda have a similar situation with Honchkrow almost..but different

          And as a side note, the Honey trees in DPPT were cool in concept but the chances of actually finding the pokemon you wanted weren’t great..

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  20. Ughhhhhh too quiet
    I need something to doooooooo
    I hope NA Virtual Console will get Animal Crossing wild world, something all consuming such as AC is a perfect time eater

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    • I had wild world and when I did everything I possibly could, I used my cousin’s action replay and messed around… and now the game is glitchy af :/

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      • I had new leaf and have been playing for nearly 3 years or so
        I want bit of a new scene with a change of pace, ya dig

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          • I can’t remember but I had a insanely cool Animal crossing fan game idea
            Something involving a massive urban city and you’d travel via subway to a rural animal village
            Or was it time travel

          • Whatever the next AC is I think it needs something like that. New Leaf’s town is a bit small and while I played it everyday for like 3 years, there’s not always a lot to come back to.

          • I hate Animal Crossing but the update will be good for it. Amiibo cards got me interested in it.

        • Sometimes older games are better, but in this case AC always adds cool new things with ever installment.

          For time wasters, try GO or Torchlight 2 or something.

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  21. LOL Accidentally posted this on the wrong article. So now I’m reposting it on the RIGHT one. ^-^;

    They need to get the guy that plays Sherlock in the Sherlock series, um Benedict Cumberbatch, to do the voice of Pikachu. 😀 THAT would make the show more believable as a “Sherlock type” or movie. LOL danny devito would NOT be a good voice choice, for this part. It wouldn’t feel right, especially NOT to me.

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  22. Isn’t Mimikyu is kind of “Breaking the Fourth Wall” stuff. If not, why is Pikachu popular and merchandised in Pokemon World, I mean really, you choose yellow mouse in a world that you can catch a solar deity moth.

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    • Hmmmmmmmmmmm
      I mean the world of Pokemon MUST have toys and merchandise of Pokemon I mean the world revolves around it
      So yeah…I’m trying to figure out if Mimikyu acknowledges Pikachu’s popularity or the Toy’s
      Like does all Mimikyu in the world instinctively know that Pikachu is universally beloved or they just literally evolved the same markings

      Just so much to jam a wrench into the biological standpoint

      Reply
  23. Shameless self advertisement! Anyone with a wii u send Exeledus a friend request! Sick of playing alone! I regret nothing!

    Reply
  24. Hey guys, I’m getting rid of all my shinies that are not under my Trainer ID. I’ll be on for an hour or so, and if you want some, just give me your FC and which 3 you want (I’ll do more later if they last long enough). And since I got all these from trades, keep in mind some have nicknames and I can’t guarantee their legitimacy. But here’s all the ones I have:

    *All are compatible with XY AND ORAS

    Reply
    • No problemo! I decided the shinies that I didn’t catch myself didn’t mean much to me, so I’m happy to get rid of them!

      Reply
          • No you can keep it. It was an extra that to be honest like you said about your shinies I really didn’t want. You can use it as a bargaining chip now tho! lol

  25. Ok guys, I’m going to bed. I’ll make an updated post in the morning with what I have left + current reservations, so please don’t add to my current post. I don’t want to get behind on anything missed!

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  26. speaking of shinies I had a few of my own before I traded in my alpha sapphire. whoever got that pre-owned game got the shinies I worked hard to get! I never did give dicie his shiny trevenant, after I said id give it to him, complications arose and I had to leave the jungle for like 2 years 🙁

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  27. i had insane shiny luck! i hatched (via masuda method, with no shiny charm) an amaura in 6 eggs, chain fished (which is essentially garunteed, so I’m not the biggest fan) a ton of pokemon, including 4 feebas because I wanted a female for milotic. lots in hordes, 1 chained hawlucha, and 1 random zekrom. (this one ws with a shiny charm) dicie’s trevenant was found like 10 minutes after I just found a shiny trevenant too haha

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