Detective Pikachu Features a Unique Cameo

The upcoming Detective Pikachu will have a unique cameo that will please fans of the Pokemon franchise.

Earlier today, WB and Legendary Pictures released the first trailer for Detective Pikachu, a new live action movie starring Ryan Reynolds as the voice of a talking Pikachu who solves mysteries and Justice Smith as his human partner Tim.

The Detective Pikachu movie is adapted from a 2016 video game that only made its way to the United States earlier this year. Fans instantly fell in love with the expressive Pikachu when trailers for the game came out. What’s more, some fans started a viral movement to have Danny DeVito to voice the character. Instead, veteran voice actor Kaiji Tang voiced Detective Pikachu in the game and Reynolds took on the role for the movie.

However, we’ll see at least one other person voice Detective Pikachu in the movie. As explained in the trailer, only certain people can actually understand Detective Pikachu. Everyone else hears the familiar “Pika Pika” noises used by other Pikachu for communications. To illustrate this, Tim asks a passerby if she can understand them, to which Detective Pikachu immediately says “Pika Pika!” in a cheerful voice.

Of course, that isn’t Reynolds who voiced Detective Pikachu in that moment. It was Ikue Ōtani, the traditional voice of Pikachu. Ōtani has voiced Pikachu since the Pokemon anime began in 1997. In addition to voicing Pikachu in television and movies, she has also voiced Pikachu in various Pokemon games, including the main series RPGs starting with Pokemon X & Y.

While we take Ōtani’s performance as Pikachu for granted, she’s one of the big reasons why Pikachu is so popular today. She provided Pikachu with so much expression and personality and we’re glad that Detective Pikachu won’t (entirely) replace her with Reynolds’ performance.

Detective Pikachu also stars Kathryn Newton as junior reporter Lucy who is also investigating the mystery, and Ken Watanabe as Lt. Yoshida. Karan Soni, Bill Nighy, Suki Waterhouse, Chris Geere, Rita Ora, and Omar Chaparro will also appear in the film.

Directed by Rob Letterman, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu’s script was co-written by Guardians of the Galaxy co-writer Nicole Perlman.

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu hits theaters on May 10th, 2019.