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Entertainment

07th Dec 2017

Ryan Reynolds to play Pikachu in live-action Pokemon film ‘Detective Pikachu’

Paul Moore

Scenes.

Not content with conquering the comic-book world in Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds has set his sights on one of the world’s most popular video game franchises, Pokemon.

The star of Just Friends and Buried will play Pikachu in the first-ever live-action Pokemon film titled Detective Pikachu.

Rob Letterman, director of Goosebumps, is behind the lens on this one and Reynolds will be joined by Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies) in the film.

Before you ask, the answer is no. Reynolds won’t be going ‘full method’ and electrocuting people while wearing a tail and yellow face paint because the role is said to be motion-capture.

As for the plot, we won’t see Pikachu battling Team Rocket because the new adventure is based on the popular Pokemon spin-off.

The story involves the father of Smith’s teenage character being kidnapped, forcing him to team up with Pikachu in order to find him. Newton will portray a journalist.

After being released in 1996, Pokemon has sold nearly 300 million video games worldwide and shipped 23 billion cards to 74 countries.

If this new film manages to match those numbers, Detective Pikachu looks like being a box-office hit.