New ‘Detective Pikachu’ Posters Released, Fan Contest Announced

Legendary and Warner Bros. Pictures are gearing up for the release of the first live-action Pokémon movie, with Detective Pikachu hitting theaters later this year.

In order to hype up all the potential trailers out there, Detective Pikachu is partnering up with Talenthouse in order to promote talented artists making their own posters for the film, releasing three new posters in the process. Take a look below!

Pikachu is arguably the most famous Pokémon in the franchise, though many fans would like to see a live-action movie featuring the long-standing protagonist Ash Ketchum. But director Rob Letterman previously explained why they decided to go a different route for Detective Pikachu.

“The Pokémon 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 said to IGN.

“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 Pokémon. So it still follows all the rules, and we get to see a lot of our favorite things.”

Instead of focusing on battles and catching Pokémon, the new movie will instead see a kid team up with the titular character in hopes of solving a mystery; check out the synopsis below.

“The story begins when 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, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery.

“Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.”

Detective Pikachu premieres in theaters on May 10th.