Justice Smith hasn’t heard anything about a Detective Pikachu movie sequel (yet). Last year, Warner Bros. released Detective Pikachu, which marked the first live-action adaptation of the popular Pokémon multimedia brand. The film starred Smith as Tim Goodman, an insurance adjuster who teams up with his missing father’s Pokémon (Ryan Reynolds) - a Pikachu whom Tim can inexplicably understand - to find his dad and ends up uncovering a larger conspiracy. WB reportedly hired Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street) to start writing a sequel before the movie even opened in theaters, but there haven’t been any updates on Detective Pikachu 2 since then.
During an interview with Coming Soon to promote Netflix’s YA drama All the Bright Things with his costar, Elle Fanning, Smith said he wishes “somebody would tell me something” about WB’s Detective Pikachu 2 plans, adding “I have no idea, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed”. Fanning then teased that Smith knew more than he was letting on and was being “secretive”, to which Smith cheerfully replied “No, I promise! I wish, I wish I knew”.
Although it made less than WB had hoped for, Detective Pikachu was still a box office success, grossing $433 million worldwide on a $150 million budget. The film was also generally well-received by critics and moviegoers, who praised it for its willingness to lean into and embrace the inherent weirdness of the Pokémon universe with its story and setting (basically, a cross between Blade Runner and Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Between that and Sonic the Hedgehog cleaning up at the box office after breaking Detective Pikachu’s opening weekend record for video game movies this month, the demand seems to be there for more live-action Pokémon adventures. For now, however, it remains unclear if WB still plans to make Detective Pikachu 2 or another standalone Pokémon live-action film (or do anything with the property at all, for that matter).
Detective Pikachu begins when ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City - a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world - they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.
Source: Coming Soon
