WMG / Pokémon Detective Pikachu

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Detective Pikachu is a stealth sequel to Deadpool 2

The entire movie is actually just Deadpool telling Negasonic Teenage Warhead the plot of a pokemon game he's been playing. Any differences between the plot of the game and the movie is explained by Deadpool either lying or just being wrong.

The movie will be a Deconstruction of the franchise

The trailer shows it takes place in a more realistic setting. Detective Pikachu deconstructing Pokémon Speak by having issues due to humans being unable to understand what he's saying. and Tim wanted to be a Pokémon trainer but it "didn't really work out" such he's disillusioned with working with Pokémon. The Charizard fight shows how horrifying Pokémon battles would be if not filtered through cartoony visuals.

• Jossed, the movie doesn't actually bother exploring the 'Pokemon in the real world' concept beyond a few jokes.

In this version Harry is Mewtwo's creator.

• Jossed, who actually created him is never stated. Only that he escaped from Kanto 20 years ago.

Rather then a Deconstruction, it'll be a Decon-Recon Switch.

At its core, Pokémon is an idealistic series, and much like Pokémon Black and White, which deconstructs the idea of using Pokémon in battles, but then reconstructs it with the fact that Pokémon like battling and do so because of the bond they have with their trainers, the movie will also do the same, showing that bonds with Pokémon greatly vary from individual to individual. Which kind of happens in the Detective Pikachu video game.

• This seems more likely, with the multiple posters for Pokémon battles visible on Tim's wall; the event we see with Charizard seems to be something like an underground fight club, with traditional game-style battling (where battles end in a faint or surrender) being more like martial arts competitions or sporting events.
• Jossed, the only relationship focused on is Tim and Pikachu's. Pokemon battles are actually never shown beyond the cage match, since they are banned in the city, and we don't really see enough of that to have an example of this trope.
• Or confirmed, given that no one in the movie condemns the concept of Pokemon battles (just noting that they are illegal within the city, not that they are wrong), and plenty of Pokemon are seen cheering during the cage match as well. Even catching them in a Pokeball is shown in a positive light, as Tim's trainer friend explains the rules of how its important that the Pokemon "choose you as well" for things to really work.

The Eevee/ Flareon is Detective Pikachu's love interest, if not a main character.

Makes sense, considering the two have been associated elsewhere and Eevee evolving into Flareon has been in most of the commercials so far. Plus this troper thinks its cuteness potential is extraordinary.

• Jossed. Flareon only appears for a couple of seconds in the movie.

Other celebrity cameos incoming

Since Pikachu can talk with other Pokemon, and we've seen Rule of Perception work so that Pikachu reverts to his "normal" voice, it's not a stretch to assume that Pikachu talking to other Pokemon that can talk will briefly cause them to switch to speaking voices. If so, Ryan Reynolds may end up attracting specific big names like Blake Lively and Josh Brolin to do cameo voice roles.

• Julian Dennison as the Squirtle Squad chief
• Céline Dion as Jigglypuff
• Patrick Stewart as Mewtwo
• Zazie Beetz as Greninja
• Terry Crews as Charizard
• Josh Brolin as Meowth
  • Jossed. Only Pikachu (and Mewtwo) can talk. (On top of that, 4Kids VA Rachael Lillis reprises her role as Jigglypuff.) That said, there's a on-screen cameo by Karan Soni (Dopinder) early in the movie.

There will be at least one Marvel related gag

There's two Marvel-affiliated actors and a Marvel-affiliated writer on the project, it's not too far-fetched to imagine they'd make a joke about it.

• I find this very unlikely as both Warner Bros (the producers of the movie) and Nintendo (the co-owners of the Pokémon franchise) are adamant on keeping things separated from Marvel's stuff, which is now owned by Disney.
  • Nintendo gave Disney permission to use Bowser in Wreck-It Ralph and DC had Stan Lee make a cameo in Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, so it's not THAT unlikely.
  • There was also a Take That! in Deadpool 2 where Deadpool goes back in time and assassinates Ryan Reynolds before he can film the role as Green Lantern
    • Jossed

Missingno. will be the villain

It would be cool to see what a realistic glitch Pokemon would look like, and it would be an awesome bit of Gen 1 fan-service.

• almost certainly Jossed: official Pokemon media tends to omit Missingno. Itd be very cool of them to embrace that part of the series, but it seems the villain will be something closer to the game plot.
• Jossed indeed.

There will be a "Duel to the Death" style cage match battle where Pokemon can die for real.

What's a really simple way to up the drama for live action in a way that none of the games or decades of anime have ever done? Have a no bars held, illegal back alley Pokémon battle where Pokés don't just faint when they lose- they get killed. This also fits into the typical Film Noir back alley gangster ring setting.

• Implied, but since we ultimately don't see how the cage fights usually works without the R drug being involved, its hard to tell how they normally end.

There’s a reason why the dude sleeping next to Jigglypuff is bald.

No points for guessing what.

• All we see in the film of the dude and Jigglypuff is what you see in the trailer. Make of that what you will.

Groudon or Regigigas is the big threat.

The shot of the four protagonists in the forest with the earth itself lifting in front of them like a mountain rising. A Legendary Pokemon has awakened, and it's one of the two so closely linked to the earth.

• It could also be Zygarde awakening.
• Or alternatively, the earth rising was an illusion caused by a powerful psychic type.
• Or a nightmare caused by Darkrai.
  • Jossed. But the mountains moving are actually several GIGANTIC Torterras that have been experimented on. They're not legendary but still massive enough to appear like a mountain range when they're sleeping
    • They did theorize that it was an after effect from Psyduck's earlier attack though.

Detective Pikachu IS Deadpool.

Using Multiverse Theory, in a timeline where Cable doesn't save Deadpool at the end of Deadpool 2, Deadpool chooses reincarnation when he finds out his girlfriend did sleep with Elvis (see the "Super Duper Cut" of Deadpool 2), and he becomes this Pikachu. The reason he can be understood by somebody is an echo of Deadpool's powers asserting themselves in just the right way, for just the right person, at just the right time.

• Jossed

Mewtwo will be the main threat

Given the abundance of Gen 1 Pokemon such as Jigglypuff, Pikachu, Charizard and Psyduck, being a focus point. It's quite clear the film is orientated to older fans, so what better way then to give a big role to the Pokemon everyone remembers from the first movie?

• Mewtwo plays a prominent role in the Detective Pikachu video game, but isn't an active antagonist. Perhaps it'll be true for the movie if it hews closer to the original video game.
• Adding credence to this theory, the first poster has some rather visible graffiti reading "M2" in purple.
• Well, guuuueeeesssss whooooo shows up in trailer #2 roaring out of a fireball and with Glowing Eyes of Doom?
  • That doesn't really prove that Mewtwo is the main villain though.
• Well Mewtwo is not the villain, we find out at the end of the film that he's actually the Big Good of the film.

This will be the movie that Pikachu says "fuck".

• Maybe not in the original English, but this has a good chance of happening in the European Spanish dub. Pikachu and Tim (And technically Mr. Mime) already said "Mierda" ("Shit") in the trailer.
• We'll hear Pikachu get the first "fu…" out...then it will cut to another person's perspective as they watch Pikachu angrily screaming "PIKA PIKA!" for two minutes.
  • Well, he's already dropped the word "hell" in the second trailer uncensored.
• Jossed, but he does say "hell" as shown in the trailer.

  • Confirmed! In the Castilian Spanish dub, pikachu technically does say "fuck" in response to another character also saying it. The Mr. Mime "shove it" seen is translated as:

  Tim: He's saying you can go fuck yourself.
  Pikachu: Fuck myself!?

Several fossil Pokemon will appear in a Jurassic Park or Jurassic World shout out

• I'm especially picturing a scenario where an Archeops looks ready to go all Velociraptor on Pikachu and Tim, only to be zapped by Pikachu and fly off, with Pikachu making a snarky comment about the Defeatist ability.
  • Something involving Tyrunt/Tyrantrum would also be great, or Cranidos reenacting the auction scene in Fallen Kingdom with the cage match attendees and employees.
• Cubone shows up, but no actual fossil Pokemon.
• There was a scene where they visited an excavation site in the original script and found mew's eyebrow, which led to them figuring out Mewtwo was involved. No word if fossil Pokemon where involved though.

Possibilities for an after-credits Continuity Cameo:

• Ash Ketchum, possibly in a scene reminiscent of Red's appearance in Gold/Silver
  • Or Red himself.
• Professor Samuel Oak ("My eyesight isn't what it used to be... are you a boy or a girl?")
  • I highly doubt this particular cameo, on account of Robin Williams being Nintendo's first choice to play Oak.
• David Tenant as Looker
• Team Rocket
• Todd Snap
• Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope and nope. No after credits scene at all.
  • The Pokemon company also explicitly forbade Ash from being referenced to in this movie.

In the after-credits sequence, Detective Pikachu will discover he's not quite alone...

"A little level-one birdie told me you can talk to humans. One of 'em, anyway. Bet you feel like you're all alone in the world."

"You mean... I'm not?"

"Meee-owth, that's right."

• There are no after credits scenes.

• By the end of the film, there are no talking Pokémon left, since Harry has been split from Pikachu, and Pikachu now speaks normally.

The Stinger will set up a Sequel Hook and/or Shared Universe

• Tim and Pikachu open up the former's mailbox to find an envelope with a very familiar symbol on the wax seal.
• Jossed. No stinger on this film.

A Ditto is involved in the plot.

Its too early to tell what it'll do, but I want to see it to show off its transforming capabilities.

• Confirmed. It'll be vital to the plot as it's the only Ditto trained to impersonate humans, setting up the crime in the backstory.

Pikachu can't use Electric attacks.

In the scene where he meets Tim, he explains that he will electrocute him very slowly, while gesturing to his tail. However, the point could have been made non-verbally, by charging up a little bit, as seen in the anime. In the anime it's revealed that Team Rocket's Meowth is unable to learn any new moves due to learning how to speak human so the same my apply here.

• This is actually the case in the original video game. Detective Pikachu is incapable of using moves that most Pikachu are capable of using. Not just Electric moves, but also other moves like Quick Attack.
• Jossed. Pikachu can be seen using Volt Tackle and Thunderbolt/Thundershock in the second trailer.
  • Not entirely Jossed actually. The climax of the video game actually does have Pikachu using a Thunderbolt on the main villain in the climax, but this is more of an Eleventh Hour Super Power. It might be a scene from the climax of the film.
  • Also before that it looks like he's using the static electricity to charge up. He's deliberately rubbing his fur on the giant plastic ballons. Where he rubs it, you can see electricity generate, no where near his cheeks. I think the old games said Pikachu store electricity in his cheeks so he could use that for the volt tackle later.
• Confirmed. Initially, when he has amnesia, Pikachu cannot use his electric attacks. But he figures them out after the brief flash of memory from Mewtwo before it was re-captured.

There will be at least one use of the phrases "It's not very effective." and "It's super effective!"

• Jossed (sadly)
  • However the phrase "Critical Hit" is used.

At one point Ken Watanabe will say "Let them fight".

• Jossed

If Team Rocket does factor into this, they will introduce themselves with "prepare for trouble"

• The film seems to hint it at one point with a chemical called "R" but nothing comes out of it. Team Rocket is not on this film, though there is a shout-out to Giovanni and Persian with this film's villain sitting in a dark room petting his pet Pokemon.

A Pokemon from Gen 8 will make its debut in this film.

Or Generation IV if they want to ride the Sinnoh remake hype. See below for a WMG suggesting Regigigas making an appearance.

• Jossed. No unfamiliar Pokémon appear in the film, so there's no obvious reference to Gen 8. While Torterra are among the subjects in the laboratory, as of its release there was no evidence of a Sinnoh remake, so there's no connection to make.

The plot revolves around missing Pokemon.

In the main poster and trailer, there are many missing posters for Pokemon like Squirtle. Also, at some later point, Tim and Pikachu are assaulted by other Pokemon—the Greninja scene seems like it's a wild encounter, but the location and intensity of the second action scene implies that they get on someone's bad side, likely the kidnapper. And obviously, Tim's father's whereabouts ties into this plot.

• Jossed: only Tim's dad is missing and he's been declared dead, so no one is looking into it besides Tim and Pikachu.

Pikachu's professional name will be "P.I. Kachu".

Couldn't resist.

• Pikachu's name is never mentioned.

There will be freeze frame bonuses depicting someone watching the anime/playing one of the games

Da Chief of that police station is secretly a Pokemon

All we see is certain officers getting yelled at in the doorway with no sign of who (or what) it is, until the end of the movie.

• This'll be the most likely place for Danny DeVito to make that cameo since he gets less lines and airtime.
• Well... at one point the chief and his Snubbull actually merge into the same person. But this is undone later

There will be Shout Outs to other Pokémon spinoff works.

• The scene of Charizard in a cage match will drop a reference to the Ferrum region.
  • In the end credits this scene is shown in the same pixel style from the Gen 1 games.
• A Freeze-Frame Bonus of one of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games advertised as a movie poster.
  • Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness may cameo in the same manner.
• A kid watching TV with a wild Pikachu.
• A Pichu with a ukelele will show up in the background.
• A background character, armed with a camera, will be referred to as Todd.
  • No Todd, but a sign advertising Snap Cameras appears in the background of one scene.
• Clockwork Pokemon toys advertised on posters or television.

The Jigglypuff in the dive bar is the same one from the anime

It has a marker that it uses as a microphone. It gets angry because its audience fell asleep. If it is the same one, then I'd bet we could see a cameo from Ash's Pikachu. It happened in the game, so why not the movie?

• Not discussed in the movie. So it's not confirmed or denied.

The being that folds the landscape on itself is Regigigas.

This is based on the fact that Pokémon movies and anime are usually used to either promote a mythical Pokémon or hint at the next generation Pokémon games. We just ran out of mythical Pokémon with the recent Pokémon Go Meltan event. There are two known Pokémon that has established lore that can move the landscape: Groudon introduced in Hoenn, and Regigigas introduced in Sinnoh. We just got Hoenn remakes back in Generation VI, Generation VII is coming to an end with the release of Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, and the next region ripe for a remake would be Sinnoh as part of Generation VIII. This means it is likely that a Regigigas feature here would be the lead-in towards main series Generation VIII games, especially the long hyped Sinnoh remakes.

• Jossed. the Pokemon is actually a giant Torterra

Giovanni will be the Big Bad behind the entire thing.

Team Rocket may not be in play until the eventual Pokémon Red and Blue film, but his influence will be present beforehand due to his quest for power via controlling the most deadly and powerful Pokemon he can.

• Jossed, Team Rocket is not in the movie but a scene with a guy sitting at his desk in the dark petting his pet is a clear shout-out to Giovanni.

The Snubbull from the trailer evolves into Granbull for the final fight.

• Jossed

Related to the above...

...the Magikarp from the "Casting" trailer evolves into the Gyarados from a previous one.

• Magikarp actually does turn into Gyarados with some help from Pikachu!

Eevee is going to be one of the "focused on" Pokémon.

And it will evolve into Flareon, judging by that trailer shot.

• Jossed. Flareon is just a one scene wonder with no importance to the plot.

Pikachu is going to battle Mewtwo

Pikachu attacks and runs away from an unknown force and Mewtwo is shown destroying a Pikachu float in the city. This might also mean that Mewtwo is the main antagonist of the film.

• Actually Mewtwo is the film's Big Good and Mewtwo helps both Pikachu and Tim multiple times
• Mewtwo does fight Pikachu but is brainwashed.

The Mandela-effect of Pikachu's tail being black on the edge will be referenced.

Maybe Detective Pikachu will get offended when he sees a Pikachu doll with black on the edge of its tail, stating it doesn't even look like him.

• Jossed

The Flareon seen in the lab

Is one that just finished it's evolution from Eevee. The effect in which it appears is distinctly different from the Pokeball Cubone came out of, and it looks like it's in a lab with Evolution Stones.

• Confirmed, though it's in Howard's office, not the lab. It begins a discussion during Tim and Pikachu's first visit.

Chemical R is being drawn from Mewtwo's berserk Gene and it fuels the underground fighting ring.

Rather than it being the plan from the game, R is being used by fighters as pretty much a pokemon steroid. (This is why Charizard has it) It's also used by the people creating it "take out" people who start tracking down the ring.

This also cuts down on a LOT of side plots that hamper a straight adaptation of the game.

• Confirmed! Great job!

The movie will confirm the game theory that Mewtwo fused Harry and Pikachu.

In the game Harry figured out what R was and where it was being made and drove towards the lab. Unfortunately he picked the exact night Mewtwo managed to escape. Mewtwo caused Harry to crash his car and the next thing Pikachu knows is he has amnesia, can talk, and can't attack. Tim also notes he's picked up a few of his dad's habits, like his love of coffee. Mewtwo also keeps an eye on Tim's progress and offers Pikachu an unknown choice at the end of the game.

The theory goes that Mewtwo, realizing instantly that he hurt the one person who was trying to save him, essentially did emergency surgery and put Harry and Pikachu in the same body before he fled (Possibly with Harry's body) With Mewtwo taking a larger role in the movie (including apparently being actually present during the climax) and the crash aftermath being shown in the trailers, we could have Mewtwo telling what happened during the crash and afterwards.

• Partially confirmed. It was the group of Greninja that caused the crash, and Mewtwo merely witnessed the crash (after Harry and Pikachu helped it escape the lab). The rest of the theory is essentially spot-on though!

Harry did fake somebody else’s death.

Specifically, Pikachu. He was rescuing it from whoever ended up eventually killing him (or trying to). He came up with a backup plan so even if they killed him, Pikachu would survive.

Harry left Pikachu his hat with his name and address so it would go there and find Tim, who Harry hoped would be able to help in his stead.

• Jossed, No death's where faked and there was nothing special with Pikachu, he was just Harry's partner and there with him.

The Torterra shown in the casting call will be revealed to have once been Tim's starter Pokemon.

I will admit i have not seen it anywhere else across trailers besides the casting call one,But assuming Tim at least attempted the Sinnoh Pokemon League, he could possibly have chosen a Turtwig as his starter pokemon until the event that caused him to distance himself from Pokemon.

• Jossed. But several Torterras are featured heavily in the movie for other reasons.

after the events of the movie...

Harry doesn't seem to remember any of it. But maybe Pikachu does, since it was his physical brain, but can't tell his humans because neither of them can understand him any longer.

Mr. Mime actually intended to cooperate from the start.

Even taking into account Ruleof Funny, there's no way that a Pokémon who apparently possesses valuable intel on an underground fight club would be stupid enough to try to flee on an invisible motorcycle.The most reasonable explanation is that this Mr. Mime was used to mess with Harry and Pikachu in the past during their interrogation and when it recognized Detective Pikachu, then it simply resumed the games it was playing with the detectives.In short, he was fully cooperative, but he was also being a Troll.

If there’s a sequel it will be based on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

At the end of the movie a bunch of pokemon and humans fused together . This includes Lucy and her Psyduck who now can understand pikachu. So in the next movie Tim and his friends will tern into Pokemon and have to go on a big adventure to find Mewtwo.

• Or at the very lest be about a bunch of cute talking animals on a magical adventure with each of them having a set of superpowers and having at lest one token human on bord.

Team Rocket will be the main antagonists of an eventual sequel.

News of Mewtwo sightings in Ryme City will call their attention. If Giovanni is no longer the boss, the current boss is someone who either heard of Mewtwo from Giovanni himself or already had some role in the original project.

James retired from Team Rocket and now lives the privileged life he was born into.

At some point between the series and this movie, his grandparents died and he inherited their fortune, allowing him to live large without using his parents'. After that, Jessiebelle gave up on him. He'll appear in the sequel when Tim needs someone who knows what Team Rocket is like.

• He'll be played by Jim Parsons.

A sequel will feature Ash as an adult.

He and Misty now have a child going on a journey and that child meets and befriends a child of Jessie and James. Based on the above guess, that child lived a sheltered life and didn't know about their criminal past until hearing about it from Ash and/or Misty.

Why didn't anyone notice the giant Torterra mountain ranges appearing outside of Ryme City?

If the several giant Torterra seen in the film were indeed the result of experimentation by Dr. Laurent's team at the clandestine research facility outside Ryme City, how is it that no civilians noticed the sudden appearance of what looks like a small mountain range? Because Howard Clifford has a hand in every aspect of hiding their presence from the public.

Ryme City was founded and built at the direction of Howard Clifford, ostensibly to provide an urban landscape that would accommodate more natural human-Pokemon interaction. That means it's less than 50 years old, which is incredibly young as far as cities go. It's not out of the question to think that Howard had a hand in all aspects of planning when Ryme City was constructed, including choosing the location for his city. It's likely that Howard chose the location for Ryme City with the intention of having an extensive Pokemon research facility nearby (near enough that Lucy and Tim are able to drive there in an afternoon, certainly near enough for him to visit if need be).

But how to keep such a facility isolated from the residents of Ryme City? Besides choosing a location that would allow him to set up a research facility nearby, Howard could have chosen a location for Ryme City that was largely de-populated and unexplored in the first place. Tim is shown having to take a train to reach Ryme City at the beginning of the film, and his train journey takes him through what appears to be either a pastoral or uninhabited zone outside Ryme City. If Ryme City was built up in an area with no major cities or extensive infrastructure extant, Howard would have been able to exert control over where major thoroughfares and rails were placed, directing them away from the site of the laboratory where Dr. Laurent would go on to conduct her research. Howard could even have gone so far as to establish a natural preserve or protected wilderness area around the lab, ensuring that nothing could be built nearby without his knowledge. And let's not forget that the besides building the town, the Cliffords own the media in Ryme City. If Howard Clifford wanted to keep people away from the facility, it would have been simple to keep information about the lab from appearing in the news, and even simpler to bribe city officials into ignoring a low-priority tract of wilderness. Whoever was in charge of surveying the territory where the Torterra range appeared probably never even made it outside city limits — how easy would it be to adjust the date on old survey maps to make them appear recent? Or to skip over the region entirely?

This movie, Super Mario Bros. (1993), Street Fighter and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) take place in the same universe.

The Super Smash Brothers Cinematic Universe.

The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series is set in an alternate universe where Howard's plan wasn't stopped

Ms. Norman or another Ditto that can imitate humans will show up in the sequel

There are so many more possibilities.

• Confirmed.

Miss Norman is actually Missingno

Just look at the name for one thing. MISS NOrman. They also react strangely to the R near the end, like they are glitching out.

• Jossed.

The Licktung randomly appearing and licking Tim on the train was its attempt to cheer him up

• It might had sense that Tim was clearly unhappy and thought that Tim needed to be cheered up so it decided to try to cheer him up the best way it knows hows by licking him.

The giant Torterra are gigantamax Torterra

If there’s a sequel it will be based on Detective Pikachu Returns

Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation are co-producing the sequel.

Warner and Legendary's relationship ended in August 2022, and Legendary signed a partnership with Sony later on.

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