Despite the brand’s global popularity stretching back two decades, Hollywood has only managed to churn out one live-action Pokémon project, which was massively successful by the standards of the genre. Detective Pikachu is the second highest-grossing console-to-screen adaptation ever made after hauling in $433 million at the box office, and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 68% puts it in second place on the all-time critical chart as well, behind this year’s Werewolves Within, which boasts a healthy 86%.
Reviews were solid across the board and it turned a decent amount of profit, and yet star Justice Smith recently admitted that he didn’t think Detective Pikachu 2 would happen, even though it was announced before the first installment had even been released. There’s still plenty of money left on the table, then, and a new rumor claims that a live-action series is in the works at Netflix based on the original game.
That’s as far as the details go, so there’s no word on how or when Netflix managed to nab the live-action rights to Pokémon, which were acquired by Legendary Pictures in 2016, which is why this one should be taken with a pinch of salt for now. The streaming service did secure the option to exclusively run new episodes of the animated shows in the United States, but there was no news of any live-action efforts at the time.
It’s definitely something that would interest the streamer, though, looking at how heavily they’re investing into video game properties to mine for content, and Pokémon is one of the biggest out there. Legendary surely wouldn’t give up without a fight given the marketing and merchandising potential that comes with the little critters, so we’ll be keeping an eye on this one to see how it develops.
