Pokémon: Detective Pikachu

Development

In April 2016, it was reported that Warner Bros. Pictures, Sony Pictures and Legendary Pictures were in negotiations for live-action film rights to Pokémon.^[3] Later in July 2016, Legendary was nearing to close a deal for the film.^[4] On July 20, 2016, it was announced that Legendary and The Pokémon Company International had signed on a deal together to make the first live-action film in the franchise, which would be based on the video game Detective Pikachu. Initially, Universal Pictures would handle the distribution outside Japan, while Toho would handle the Japanese distribution.^[5] On August 16, 2016, Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch were in negotiations with Legendary to write the screenplay.^[6] On November 30, 2016, Legendary hired Rob Letterman to direct the film, which the studio had fast-tracked for production to start in 2017.^[7]

On July 25, 2018, Warner Bros. Pictures announced they would take over worldwide distribution duties (except in Japan and China) from Universal, with the release date unchanged.^[8] The reason for adapting Detective Pikachu came from The Pokémon Company and Letterman's desire to make a movie that focused on another character besides Ash Ketchum. On the premise, Letterman stated, "The Pokémon Company, they’ve already made many, many movies of Ash, and they came to Legendary with this idea of using a new character. So when I came onboard, I was pitched this character of Detective Pikachu, and I fell in love with the story behind it."^[9]

Casting

In November 2017, Justice Smith was cast in the lead human role, with Kathryn Newton cast to costar after an intense session of reading and testing actresses who would appear opposite Smith. Newton beat out Natalia Dyer, Haley Lu Richardson, and Katherine Langford for the role.^[10][11] In December 2017, Ryan Reynolds was cast in the titular role to be portrayed via motion-capture.^[12] Other actors considered for the role were Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, and Hugh Jackman.^[13] In January 2018, with production commencing, Ken Watanabe, Bill Nighy, and Chris Geere joined the cast.^[14][15] In February 2018, Suki Waterhouse and Rita Ora joined the cast.^[16][17] In April 2018, Omar Chaparro joined the cast.^[18]

Filming

Principal production began on January 15, 2018, in London, England.^[19] Nine days later, Legendary announced that principal photography had officially begun.^[20] The press release revealed that Alex Hirsch was not involved with the final draft of the script and that Nicole Perlman and Rob Letterman were the only ones credited.^[21] Principal photography concluded on May 1, 2018.^[22]

Post-production

Much of the visual effects were provided by the same team behind The Jungle Book and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Letterman compared the visual effects to the character of Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy. "They’re technically, some of the most high-end visual effects in the world...It’s completely photorealistic, like they are alive and in the movie." Additional audio recording of a supposed fight between Detective Pikachu and Charizard was recorded at the Pokémon World Championships.^[9]