Detective Pikachu Producer Teases A Pokémon Cinematic Universe

Welcome to Ryme City. Home of pocket monsters, neon-lit streets, and an adorable little detective by the name of Pikachu.

That is, in a nutshell, the basic set-up for director Rob Letterman’s upcoming Detective Pikachu, which will see the titular video game icon team up with Tim Goodman, a jaded Pokémon trainer searching for his missing father.

He’s also the only one in Ryme City who can understand Pikachu, and therein lies a hook – a spark – that will no doubt define Detective Pikachu and its heartfelt story. And with early reactions already proving to be extremely positive, and box office projections looking pretty rosy, attention is starting to turn towards what comes next. A sequel? A spinoff? An entire cinematic universe?

Well, Legendary Entertainment hasn’t officially announced anything just yet, but producer Ali Mendes recently spoke with IGN and teased that all of the above are possible.

“There are so many ways you can go inside of it. We’re trying to get the first movie right, and then once we’ve done that, we’ll see where we go from there, but absolutely. There are a lot of opportunities.”

“Even the Pokemon themselves, there are eight hundred of them. We’re going to have a lot of them in [Pokemon: Detective Pikachu], but we want to play with all of them at some point.”

Of course, any future plans the studio may have will depend heavily on whether the pic can bring in enough box office receipts to warrant a full-blown franchise. Like we said above, though, the projections are looking good so far and given that Disney’s been banking on nostalgia with its live-action adaptations for a while now, we imagine Detective Pikachu will be able to do the same when it hits theaters on May 10th.

What do you think, though? Is Legendary sitting on a bonafide hit with Detective Pikachu? Or will the film get swallowed up in the busy spring/summer season? As always, you can chime in with your thoughts down below.