Netflix is working on a live-action Pokémon series, while Detective Pikachu 2 seems to have gone silent - but shouldn't that be the other way around? According to widespread reports, the wacky world of Pokémon is getting a live-action TV show. Lucifer showrunner Joe Henderson is attached to this Netflix original series, which is one of several anime adaptations the streaming platform has brewing in its pipeline. Though details remain scarce, Netflix's Pokémon effort will seemingly take its visual and design cues from Detective Pikachu, which successfully melded live-action performances with a believable CG Pokémon environment.
Considered one of the very few video game movies of any merit, Detective Pikachu was a box office hit in 2019, and talk of a sequel quickly started in earnest. Unfortunately, nothing whatsoever has grown from those initial (leech) seeds of interest. The most recent update was a pessimistic one from Detective Pikachu's human star, Justice Smith, who claimed he hadn't been contacted about Detective Pikachu 2 and doubted the sequel would happen at all. All things considered, however, Detective Pikachu should be where the future of live-action Pokémon lies, rather than a TV series adapting the anime or video games more directly.
Because the franchise is so beloved, translating Pokémon to live-action is harder than getting a Magikarp to inflict battle damage, but Detective Pikachu averted this problem by adapting a relatively lesser-known video game, rather than Ash Ketchum's iconic story. Detective Pikachu resisted nostalgia and offered a Pokémon experience that fans new and old could get behind. Taking a more traditional route (with or without Ash), the Netflix show risks trampling over those precious childhood memories of watching Pokémon straight after school, and this fear was prevalent all over social media after the news broke.
Detective Pikachu wisely recognized that Pokémon's original audience were now well into their 20s, hence Ryan Reynolds' hilarious, coffee-guzzling electric mouse, and a relatable central character who had "grown out" of catching Pokémon (before realizing what he was missing, obviously). This relatively mature tone let Detective Pikachu dodge the biggest pitfalls of a live-action Pokémon story, but the Netflix series won't have that same self-aware Ryan Reynolds humor to counteract the inherent silliness of seeing a live-action Lickitung.
It also seems strange to abandon a movie franchise so rich in potential for something entirely new. Detective Pikachu's Ryme City was only the tip of a massive Pokémon iceberg where colorful/deadly creatures lived side-by-side with humans in fascinating fashion. Sure, "Detective Pikachu" became just "Pikachu" by the end, but there's no limit to the Poké-crimes he and Tim could solve if, for whatever reason, the yellow Sherlock Holmes was restored. Netflix must now build a new live-action Pokémon landscape from scratch, ensuring the TV series is unique enough to avoid being labeled a Detective Pikachu copycat, but similar enough to capture the level of realism that worked on the big screen. Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier and more satisfying for fans to just continue Detective Pikachu's tried-and-tested formula in a sequel?
Only a real Slowpoke would write off Netflix's Poké-project before a scene has even been filmed, and there's no reason Detective Pikachu 2 couldn't happen in conjunction with the TV show. Indeed, if Ash Ketchum becomes a streaming hit, the powers that be might feel encouraged to forge ahead with their Detective Pikachu follow-up plans. Nevertheless, it's odd that a new live-action Pokémon franchise is just beginning when another has been unfairly abandoned.