The film itself is still months away, and no one is quite sure how well Detective Pikachu, with its odd blend of CG, live-action, fantasy, comedy and police drama will fare at the box office, but Legendary clearly has some confidence in it. The company has started very early work on a sequel, with 22 Jump Street and The Cloverfield Paradox's Oren Uziel hired to start the script process.
We'll have the basic concept introduced in the first movie, which sees ace private eye Harry Goodman (Paul Kitson) go mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim (Justice Smith) to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds): a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself.
Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City – a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world – they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.
Director Rob Letterman wrote the original's script along with Nicole Perlman, and Legendary has naturally not said anything about where Uziel will take the story in the sequel. Detective Pikachu will be out in the UK on 10 May, and you can find the first main trailer here. Uziel has contributed to the script for another iconic video game character headed to cinemas this years, with Sonic The Hedgehog due on 26 December.
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