‘Detective Pikachu’ Won’t Feature Ash Ketchum For One Anime Reason

Fans never believed a live-action Pokemon movie would be made, but Detective Pikachu is ready to prove them wrong. Director Rob Letterman will bring the franchise into the real world soon enough, but Ash Ketchum won’t be a part of it.

Apparently, you have the anime to thank for that.

Recently, IGN had the chance to chat with Letterman at the 2018 Pokemon World Championships in Nashville. It was there the director discussed creating the live-action and said the anime is partially to blame for Ash’s absence in the film.

“The Pokemon Company, they’ve already made many, many movies of Ash, and they came to Legendary with this idea of using a new character. So when I came on board, I was pitched this character of Detective Pikachu, and I fell in love with the story behind it,” Letterman explained.

“It’s a really great story. It was something with a lot of heart, and it was just very unique. And because there’s already been so much work done with Ash, for the first live-action movie I thought it was a really good idea to try something new with a new character but bake it into the universe of Pokemon. So it still follows all the rules, and we get to see a lot of our favorite things.”

Of course, the director isn’t wrong. Pokemon has doled out more than 20 movies featuring Ash, and that doesn’t even touch the 1,000+ episodes the trainer has starred in. Ever since the Pokemon anime began, Ash has become as much of an icon for the franchise as Pikachu has, but this live-action take hopes to branch out a new take on the series. Detective Pikachu‘s spin-off origin will not align with the traditional Pokemon story fans are used to seeing, but that does not mean that narrative is totally out the window. Should this live-action debut go over smoothly, then Hollywood may fall in line with a more anime-inspired take on Pokemon in the future.

So far, there are no trailers out for Detective Pikachu, but fans are eager to check out the film. The film put out its first poster over the weekend in honor of the World Championships, but no trailer has dropped just yet. With so much pressure riding on the live-action adaptation, anime lovers and gamers alike are hoping Pokemon wows in live-action and helps dispel the surly reputation anime has earned within Hollywood.

Which anime feature would you like brought to life in live-action? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!