Detective Pikachu Comes to 'Pokemon Trading Card Game'

The star of the Pokemon franchise's first ever live-action Pokemon movie is coming to the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

TotalCards.net was the first to report that the Pokemon Trading Card Game will release a subset of cards featuring Detective Pikachu. While few details have been announced, it appears that this 'Detective Pikachu' expansion will be a mini-set similar to this year's "Shining Legends" expansion and will only be available by purchasing "Special Case File" box sets.

Detective Pikachu will star in next summer's Detective Pikachu movie, so it makes sense that the gruff Pokemon detective will get some time to shine in tie-in products. While a list of cards hasn't been announced, we can expect that Detective Pikachu, his allies, and enemies will all get featured in the new card set, which will be released next March.

So far, three special file sets have been announced, each of which are centered around a different GX card. There's the Detective Pikachu Character GX Case File, the Charizard-GX Case File, and the Greninja-GX Case File. Each Case File contains 4-5 Detective Pikachu booster packs, two regular TCG booster packs, a GX Promo Card and an oversized GX promo card. The Greninja-GX Case File also contains a pin.

The Pokemon TCG will also release regular case files that contain two Detective Pikachu boosters, a regular TCG booster, plus promo cards, coins, and other goodies. There's also a special Collector's Chest Tin featuring Detective Pikachu that also comes with booster packs and other promotional items.

This isn't the first time that the Pokemon TCG has tied into the Pokemon games, anime, or movies, but this is the first time we've gotten a full expansion based on a film. Usually, the Pokemon TCG releases a handful of promotional cards (such as the Ancient Mew card from the late 1990s) but not a full set. We'll have more information about the cards as information is officially released.