With his “Deadpool” sequel already in site, a new role is announced for Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds. From a teen heartthrob to multiple superheroes, the actor will now be taking on an animated role — as the voice and mo-cap role of Detective Pikachu.
He will be joining the lead cast members Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton. Aside from him, actors Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, and Hugh Jackman were listed for the role along with Danny DeVito who had been placed into consideration in result of the 50,000 or so supporters of a certain Change.org petition.
Taking the helm of director for the production is Rob Letterman, known to have directed animated films “Shrek” and “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.” With him s the screenplay writers are Alex Hirsch and Nicole Periman who worked on “Gravity Falls” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” respectively.
As for the character that Reynolds will be playing as, he is described to be a peculiar talking Pikachu who, despite not being as powerful and nimble as other Pikachu of his kind, is rather intelligent and claims to be a great detective.
“Great Detective Pikachu” otherwise known as “Meitantei Pikachū: Shin Konbi Tanjō” is originally an adventure video game that was developed by Creatures Inc., published by The Pokémon Company and then distributed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. A spin-off of the Pokemon franchise, it sets the player as a human that is able to understand a talking Pikachu and together they solve mysteries. This is also the main premise for the film and the name of the boy is Tim Goodman.
It has been reported that filming will only begin in the following month but it has been confirmed that the film will be released worldwide by Universal, except in Japan, where it will be released by Toho.
The film was first announced on July 20, 2016, 4 days after the 19th film was released in Japan. At this time, American film company Legendary Entertainment had announced that they have acquired the rights to make a live-action film and began their production this year.
Source: Crunhyroll News