Frankly, we’re still surprised it’s taken this long for Hollywood to get their greedy mitts on the Pokemon franchise. While it’s kind of a strange entity – a popular children’s franchise about making your pets fight each other (I kid, I kid, but it’s still pretty weird) – it’s nevertheless been an enormous cash cow for two whole decades. Never forget, Pokemon isn’t a fad. It’s lasted so long that it’s officially a cultural institution.
But now the dust has settled, and after a long bidding war it now appears that Legendary Pictures has emerged as the victor of the great Pokemon conflict. What’s more, Deadline has already revealed that their new film will be based on the game Great Detective Pikachu, which…
Wait, really? Great Detective Pikachu? I’m not going to besmirch the game here, but when people think of Pokemon they usually don’t default to the one about a talking Pikachu who solves mysteries. They usually think of “gotta catch ’em all” and arena battles and Team Rocket, blasting off again.
Also: Pokemon Go PSA | Nobody Cares If You Disapprove Of The Game
Sure, maybe they’ve got a really good story in mind, but it just seems odd that the first live-action Pokemon movie wouldn’t be about the most iconic version of that universe. This would be like making the first official live-action Marvel movie, one made by their own studio, out of a less-than popular character like Iron Man instead of an A-lister like…
Oh wait… maybe this is a good idea after all. Perhaps subverting our expectations and convincing us of the Pokemon universe’s potential to tell unexpected stories is the smartest play here, since for every diehard Pokemon Go player out there, there’s at least one person who thinks that other person is out of their damned minds.
We’ll find out how the gambit pays off soon. The Pokemon movie is set to go into production next year.
Top Photo: The Pokemon Company
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
