First Pokemon Mewtwo Movie Trailer to Be Released on New Year's Day

The Pokemon Company is kicking off 2019 with a bang, as they plan to release the trailer for the new Pokemon movie on New Year's Day.

Earlier today, the Pokemon Company confirmed that the first trailer for Pokemon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution will be released on January 1st. The new movie features the return of Mewtwo, the powerful Legendary Pokemon faced by trainers at the end of Pokemon Red and Blue.

While details about the film are scarce, it's presumed that the new movie will be set in the continuity established in Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You, which acted as a "reboot" of the Pokemon franchise and separated the movies and main anime series into distinct universes. While both the anime series and movies feature Ash Ketchum and his partner Pikachu, the movies have focused a bit more on plot and the relationship between Ash and Pikachu, with other supporting character from the television series not making an appearance.

Although it's not expected to be a remake of the original Mewtwo Strikes Back movie, most fans believe that the new movie will at least borrow some of the original movie's basic themes and homage the movie in different ways. A teaser for the movie showed Mewtwo floating in some sort of bubbling liquid, a clear callback to Mewtwo's origin as a cloned Pokemon grown inside a vat. Many believe that the movie will also feature some sort of new Mewtwo form, given the presence of several "mystery" Pokemon merchandise that will be released around the time of the movie. The name of the movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution, even teases that Mewtwo could gain a new evolution, although that seems unlikely given Mewtwo's already powerful in-game stats and two Mega Evolutions.

Pokemon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back will be released in July 2019 in Japan.

(h/t Serebii)