Pokémon Movie ‘Detective Pikachu’ Casts Justice Smith
Detective Pikachu, a real movie that’s really being made, just cast its lead.Justice Smith, who appeared in the Netflix seriesThe Get Down, has just joined the cast of the upcomingPokémonmovie. I’m assuming he’s not playing Pikachu, but rather the human character who assists the intrepid monster detective on his quest to solve mysteries.
Last year, the location-based mobile gamePokémon Gotook the world by storm, and the film industry came calling. A live-actionDetective Pikachufilm, based on the gameGreat Detective Pikachu, was given the go-ahead withGoosebumpsdirectorRob Lettermanat the helm. NowDetective Pikachuhas cast its lead: Jusitce Smith, who had a break-out role in the now-cancelled Netflix seriesThe Get Down.Varietyreports Smith will play the lead in the film, with Letterman directing a script byNicole Perlman(Guardians of the Galaxy) andAlex Hirsch(Gravity Falls).
ThePokémonfranchise involves around 807 fictional species of collectible monsters, and each monster has their own unique set of skills. Conceived in the 1990s, the franchise has spawned video games, trading cards, an anime series, and more. While the series had always remained popular, Pokémon Go revitalized things for a period last year, when the world went nuts for the game. Rather than adaptPokémonGointo a film, however, Legendary and Universal have instead chosen to focus onGreat Detective Pikachu.
The original game follows an intelligent Pikachu – one of the many monsters who make up the Pokémon world – who claims to be a detective. This detective Pikachu befriends a boy named Tim Goodman, who can understand what Pikachu is saying and thus becomes his side-kick – the Dr. Watson to Pikachu’s Sherlock Holmes, if you will. The two team-up to solve mysteries involving other Pokémon. All of this sounds very strange, by the way.
The Variety scoop doesn’t specify, but I’d assume this means Smith will be playing the Tim Goodman character, who teams with Detective Pikachu and helps the creature solve a mystery or two. It’s somewhat strange that the first live-action Pokémon film will be based onGreat Detective Pikachuand not the originalPokémongame.
This isn’t the only big property Smith has joined. Director J.A. Bayona cast the young actor in hisJurassic WorldsequelJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, due out in the summer of 2018. No release date for theDetective Pikachumovie has been set yet. I wonder if Detective Pikachu willtalkin the film.
