Discussions of a Pokémon Detective Pikachu sequel movie had seemed dead and buried, especially after Justice Smith, who starred in the first movie, straight-up said in March 2021 that he didn’t think the movie was going to happen. Yet today, Deadline reports that Portlandia co-creator Jonathan Krisel is actually in negotiations to direct the Detective Pikachu 2 movie for Legendary Entertainment, which is kind of a double whammy of surprises. No deals are in place for anyone to return for the sequel, but Deadline sources believe the film will try to incorporate Ryan Reynolds, who voiced Pikachu in the 2019 film, in some capacity. Those who saw the first movie would know there may be some complexity involved there.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu wasn’t an especially great movie, but it grossed $433 million worldwide and appeared to please hardcore fans. At first, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that The Pokémon Company and Legendary would expedite a sequel or at least a spinoff, and indeed, a sequel was announced back in 2019. But then nothing really happened for years until now, and Chris Galletta will be writing the movie script for this new iteration of Detective Pikachu 2.
Chris Galletta is only really known for writing coming-of-age film The Kings of Summer in 2013, which received a positive critical reception. Jonathan Krisel, in addition to co-creating quirky comedy Portlandia, has directed episodes of various TV shows like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Man Seeking Woman. Whatever they come up with, they won’t have to reach a very high bar to match the quality of the first film.
Meanwhile, last September, the Detective Pikachu 2 Nintendo Switch video game was described as being “nearing release” in a person’s LinkedIn bio, but we’ve heard nothing from that game yet either.
