Yeah, I had to question that title as well but it seems that the long-awaited sequel to Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is still “in active development” according to a Legendary Entertainment representative. Of course, we don’t know at what stage it is exactly without anyone actively involved with the project but it seems Legendary is still keen on releasing the project at some point if possible.
The sequel was renewed ahead of the first entries’ theatrical release. So, Legendary was all in creating their own universe. Yet, we also heard that Netflix was potentially going to reboot the film to better tie into their new TV series that is being developed by Lucifer‘s Joe Henderson.
As such, it’s hard to say if we should ever actually expect a sequel or not. The new series was announced back in July of 2021 and there has been little movement on the project since. So, we don’t know if Netflix passed on the project or if even The Pokémon Company may have decided not to move forward. As of now, the cinematic future of this franchise leaves us questioning things like a Wobbuffet.
Even the writer of Detective Pikachu, Benji Samit, and Dan Hernandez, pointed out that there’s a general rights issue for Pokémon that may be the leading cause of why we haven’t seen anything moving forward. The film did a lot right and offered some of the best live-action adaptations of an anime but sadly seemingly lost all momentum since its release in 2019.
Source: Polygon
