The Detective Pikachu movie cast is growing a bit larger.
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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that British singer Rita Ora has joined the cast of the live action Pokemon movie. Ora is a British singer/actress best known for her role as Mia Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels. THR doesn’t have any additional news as to whom Ora will be playing in the upcoming Detective Pikachu film.
Ora joins a growing cast headlined by Ryan Reynolds of Deadpool fame. Reynolds will voice the title character, a gruff, coffee-swilling Pokemon who can talk to his partner and has a knack for finding things. Justice Smith (Jurassic Park: Hidden Kingdom) will play Pikachu’s partner, a young man whose father is kidnapped. Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies) plays a junior reporter who assists the pair on the case.
Ken Watanabe, Bill Nighy, Suki Waterhouse, and Chris Geere are also set to appear in the film.
The movie is based off the Detective Pikachu game, which was released in 2016 in Japan. The game received rave reviews and attracted mainstream attention when Pokemon fans petitioned the Pokemon Company for an English version of the game with Danny DeVito voicing Pikachu. An expanded version of the game will be released in the United States in March along with an extra-sized amiibo of Detective Pikachu himself.
Legendary Pictures obtained the live action movie rights to the Pokemon franchise in 2016 shortly after the franchise regained mainstream popularity due to Pokemon Go. Legendary surprised fans when they announced they were adapting the Detective Pikachu game instead of doing a live-action version of the Pokemon anime series.
Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) will direct the movie with a script written by Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls). The Pokemon Company’s Tsunekazu Ishihara and Joe Caracciolo Jr. (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) serve as executive producers, while Mary Parent and Cale Boyter from Legendary serve as producers. Visual effects for the film (which likely include CGI versions of Pokemon) will be provided by Moving Picture Company (Wonder Woman) and Framestore (Paddington 2).
Detective Pikachu arrives in theaters on May 10, 2019.
