Detective Pikachu began with Tim Goodman jaded and unwanting of a Pokémon partner, that is until one is thrust upon him in the form of the titular investigator. However, in an early version of the live-action
Pokémon film, Tim was apparently going to be paired up with an Arcanine.
RJ Palmer, a concept artist who worked on
Detective Pikachu, recently shared some designs for the tiger-like creature. Palmer revealed the interesting alternate creative decision in his tweet (
@arvalis).
“Arcanine was originally going to be a much bigger part of Detective Pikachu,” Palmer explained.
“This stuff is from very early on my work for the film. It was going to be Tim's Pokemon so I gave it the tongue sticky out thing my doofus cat does. What's not to love, its a horse sized liger-dog.”
It's unclear exactly how the fierce creature would've factored into the film, and what its inclusion would've meant for Tim's arc and Detective Pikachu itself. Below you can check out the tweet in question and the cool pieces of concept art - one of which even includes the skeletal structure of the Arcanine.
Ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son, Tim, to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry's former Pokémon partner, wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth Detective Pikachu. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to work together, as Tim is the only human who can talk with Pikachu, they join forces to unravel the tangled mystery.