In case you hadn’t already caught wind of the news, Netflix has just added yet another video game franchise to its repertoire, this time in the form of Pokémon. As the highest-grossing media franchise ever with lifetime revenue (as of writing) in the ballpark of $100 billion, it’s tough to overstate the importance of this particular partnership, and it goes without saying that the enormity of the opportunity won’t be lost on the streaming platform, either.
It’s thanks to Variety’s report yesterday, of course, that the project’s existence is now common knowledge, though not much beyond that has so far come to light. Due to its infancy, it’ll likely be some time until details relating to the story and setting come to light, but we’ve learned recently that fans should expect a no expense spared adventure when the show finally debuts. Sources have revealed to WGTC that each season of the live-action adaptation will receive a budget of $200m, making it easily the company’s most expensive production to date.
For the sake of comparison, 2019’s Detective Pikachu was filmed and produced for approximately $150m, much of which was guzzled up by the cutting-edge technology required to bring Pikachu and friends to life in a real-world setting. Assuming this episodic venture uses the same or a similar process to animate any featured Pokémon, it stands to reason that the price would match or exceed that of Warner Bros.’ release.
Truth be told, definite answers to those questions are likely still a ways off, but in the meantime but if precedence has proven anything, it’s that Pokémon is in safe hands with Netflix, at least as far as commitment and loyalty to the source material are concerned. Watch this space for further developments.
