The cast of Legendary Entertainment's upcoming live-action Pokemon movie
Detective Pikachu continues to grow.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ken Watanabe (
Godzilla) has joined the cast and will play Detective Yoshida, a new character exclusive to the film. Watanabe is also slated to appear in the upcoming film
Godzilla: King of Monsters, and was previously nominated for an Oscar for his work alongside Tom Cruise in
The Last Samurai.
Watanabe joins
Ryan Reynolds, who will be the voice of the iconic character Pikachu (or Detective Pikachu), and
Justice Smith (
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), who plays a boy in search of his missing/kidnapped father. It's unclear how Watanabe's detective character will assist the two in their search for Smith's character's father. Meanwhile, Kathryn Newton (
Big Little Lies) was also
recently announced to play the female lead, Lucy, a "sassy journalist" who also aids in the search.
Rob Letterman is helming
Detective Pikachu, with a script penned by Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch. It's the first live-action film based on the popular
Pokemon franchise, which was first introduced in Japan in 1996. Since then, the franchise has become a global phenomenon, with
more than 300 million video games sold worldwide, 21.5 billion TCG cards shipped to 74 countries, and an animated series spanning 19 seasons.
Detective Pikachu will debut in theaters in the United States on Friday, May 10, 2019.