Detective Pikachu just got even weirder.
Not content with getting Ryan Reynolds to voice the talking, hardboiled Detective Pikachu, the upcoming Pokémon movie has now landed serious actor Ken Watanabe.
“Ken Watanabe is joining Ryan Reynolds in Detective Pikachu, Legendary Entertainment’s live-action Pokémon movie,” revealed The Hollywood Reporter. “And it sounds as though he might even be playing Detective Pikachu’s partner.”
Detective Pikachu is based on the Nintendo 3DS game about an intelligent pokemon and his human pal, a boy named Tim, who solve mysteries together. It’s an intriguing concept, but a movie about this just sounds absolutely insane.
Even more so with the pokemon voiced by Ryan Reynolds.
Who will Ken Watanabe be playing?
“Watanabe will play a character named Detective Yoshida.”
Although, they do clarify that this role has been specifically created for the movie… and so it’s equally plausible that Watanabe is Detective Pikachu’s rival. You know… at PokéPolice or whatever…
“[Ken] Watanabe joins Justice Smith, who will be seen in the upcoming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Big Little Lies actress Kathryn Newton in the movie based on the gaming franchise.”
The plot currently remains (rather appropriately) a bit of a mystery. We do know that Justice Smith will play a character whose father is kidnapped, which leads Smith to seek the help of the most famous crime-solving pokemon.
Kathryn Newton will play a ‘sassy journalist’ who helps them.
It’s still unclear who Ken Watanabe will be playing.
I can’t help thinking it would awesome to see a wise-cracking pokemon partnering up with a serious, hardboiled human cop. Yes, it’s crazy, and this movie makes no sense whatsoever.
But I’m actually starting to come around to it.
Detective Pikachu stars Ryan Reynolds, Ken Watanabe, Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton.
Rob Letterman will direct the film, based on a script by Alex Hirsch and Nicole Perlman.
Detective Pikachu heads to cinemas in 2019.
