Variety reports that a new Pokémon series is in the early stages of development at Netflix. According to its story, the in-development Pokémon series will be a live-action project similar to the 2019 film Detective Pikachu.
It’s still early days for Netflix’s live-action Pokémon series, which hasn’t officially been announced by the streamer. Reportedly, Lucifer’s co-showrunner and executive producer, Joe Henderson, will write and produce the series. As of yet there’s no release date information or any other concrete details, but based on the mention of Detective Pikachu, it seems likely this live-action series will use real human actors and CGI-created Pokemon, blending the two together as seen in that 2019 film which starred Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Pikachu.
Detective Pikachu, the first live-action movie based on the long-running Pokémon franchise, was a huge success, grossing over $US430 ($583) million worldwide. Since then, the Pokémon franchise has seen an explosion in popularity, with rare Pokémon cards selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars while new Pokémon games, like a recently released MOBA spin-off, continue to attract a large number of players and fans with each release.
Frankly, it makes sense to create a live-action series after the successful live-action movie and with demand for Pokémon content higher than ever. Plus, as Variety points out, Netflix has become the U.S. streaming home for multiple existing Pokémon shows, including “Pokémon: Indigo League” and “Pokémon Journeys” among many others. And with Netflix’s push into gaming, it isn’t surprising to see news of a live-action Pokémon series in the works.
No additional details were reported by Variety. Season 6 of Joe Henderson’s current show, Lucifer, will air on September 10. It’s that show’s final season, so now he should have plenty of time to craft this new live-action Pokémon into another fan-pleaser.
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