When
Detective Pikachu was first announced and revealed to the world back in November of last year, to many it was bizarre that such a story would be chosen as the very first live-action movie in the franchise. This would be the representation of the franchise to the massive mainstream audience.
So why did The Pokemon Company decide to turn an obscure 3DS game into a movie over all else? Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez, the writers of the live-action
Pokemon film, recently featured on a
Comicbook.com podcast where they discussed just that.
Samit first revealed that the game was chosen before the two writers were even brought onto the project.
"When we first got involved, it was already Detective Pikachu. I think some of those conversations happened before us. Detective Pikachu is what Legendary and the Pokemon Company were in agreement of."
He then revealed that the reason that he believes the title was chosen to adapt is because it's so unlike anything that's been put to screen before - both in terms of the
Pokemon franchise and beyond.
"If we're going to make a live action Pokemon movie, it needs to be different. It needs a reason to exist. We don't want to just remake movies we've already seen before."
The writer continued, stating that both he and his co-writer were on-board with the decision from the get go.
"I think they rightfully thought this weird side-game that most people were not familiar with was actually a really cool thing to see in live action. Ryme City and Pokemon and people living together is such a cinematic thing [and] that's what they wanted to do from very early on. When we first heard about it, we were like, 'Yeah, that sounds awesome!'"
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.