It was only last week we were hearing rumblings that a live-action Pokémon series could be happening at Netflix, after Warner Bros. failed to capitalize on the momentum of Detective Pikachu, which hauled in $433 million at the box office and stands tall as just one of three video game adaptations in history to wind up with a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Netflix already had the exclusive rights to air new episodes of the animated show, and the move into live-action continues the platform’s recent remit to hedge their bets on a number of console favorites to mine for content, with countless projects in various stages of development already including The Witcher, Resident Evil, Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, Tomb Raider, The Division, Far Cry, Sonic the Hedgehog and more.
As per the initial report, Lucifer co-showrunner and executive producer Joe Henderson is attached to write and produce the episodic spin on Pokémon, so he’s not wasting any time settling on his next collaboration with the streamer once the smash hit supernatural procedural draws to a close next month with the release of Season 6.
No plot or character details are available, and it could be a while before we hear more, but the Pokémon mythology is open to interpretation in almost limitless ways, so it’s impossible at this stage to guess where things could be headed, although a re-telling of the earlier games with Ash Ketchum would stand out as an obvious story avenue.
Either way, it’s great news for fans of the franchise, who’ve been left wondering what was next for the live-action arm after Detective Pikachu stalled, despite the sequel being announced before the first film had even hit theaters back in the summer of 2019.
Published: Jul 26, 2021 12:59 pm