Apparently, a sequel to the Detective Pikachu movie is still in “active development,” according to a Legendary Entertainment representative when asked by Polygon about the status of a follow-up movie. Unfortunately, there were no details about who is working on it, if any returning characters from the previous movie will appear, or any idea of when we could get an update on it. The Pokémon Company has said nothing about the future of the movie series.
The original movie’s writers, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez, have publicly stated they are not involved with a Detective Pikachu sequel, but they would love to do it. According to Samit, the big hold-up these days has to do with rights issues surrounding the Pokémon franchise. When it comes to a property with over a thousand possible creatures to represent in a movie, we imagine those talks are pretty extensive.
Related: How to randomize Pokémon games
The Detective Pikachu movie was seen as a success by pretty much everyone involved. Justice Smith and Ryan Reynolds were lauded by viewers for representing their characters in a world that could be believable. Seeing the creatures represented in live-action was truly amazing for fans who have paid attention since the first Pokémon games. That being said, the original movie did not set itself up for another Pikachu-talking sequel, so a new direction could be taken.
Related: Pokémon Go dataminers uncover devastating Breaking Swipe stats, creating buzz in the community
The movie sequel to Detective Pikachu isn’t the only aspect of the franchise that is up in the air. A game sequel for Nintendo Switch was announced in 2019 and has been completely silent since. While there were job postings for the game a year ago, we know nothing about how that game looks. Of course, the pandemic likely had negative repercussions on both the movie and game, so hopefully, we can begin to hear positive progress on them at some point this year. While none have been announced to this point, Nintendo has a history of streaming Nintendo Directs in February, which has the potential for a news update.
