Which Legendary Pokemon Will Be the First to Appear in Pokemon Go?

Pokemon Go just confirmed that the first ever Legendary Pokemon will appear at Pokemon Go Fest this weekend. While we’ve long suspected this to be the case, the news still has Pokemon Go fans around the world in a frenzy and anticipating a summer filled with finding, battling, and catching Legendary Pokemon.

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While we’re expecting all of the Legendary Pokemon to appear at some point in Pokemon Go, we do have to wonder which one will appear at Chicago on Saturday. Not only will that Pokemon make history by being the first Legendary Pokemon to appear in the game, it will also set the tone to what players can look forward to for the rest of the summer.

Scroll down to see our list of likely possibilities and be sure to vote in the poll at the end to let us know which Pokemon you think it will be:

Mewtwo

Mewtwo is probably the best known of all the Legendary Pokemon thanks to its prominence in Pokemon Red and Blue, as well as the first Pokemon movie.

Mewtwo was an “end boss” of sorts in the original Pokemon games, a Pokemon that players couldn’t find or battle until they became Champion by beating all the gyms, the Elite Four, and their rival. Mewtwo was also the star of the first (and best known) Pokemon movie, where it attempted to replace all Pokemon with clones and then accidentally killed Ash Ketchum.

Mewtwo also had a prominent role in the first Pokemon Go trailer, where it battled hundreds of Pokemon to a standstill in Times Square. Players clung to the footage of Mewtwo smacking around various Pokemon for a full year while patiently waiting for Pokemon Go to actually add Legendary Pokemon to the game.

Articuno

Technically, whatever Legendary Pokemon appears at Pokemon Go Fest this weekend won’t be the first to appear in Pokemon Go. That distinction goes to “Articundo,” a stray Articuno that appeared in Dayton, Ohio during the dying days of last summer’s Pokemon Go craze.

The story of Articundo is a strange one. One night, a woman claimed that she received an Articuno from Niantic in response to a customer service complaint and then placed it in a local gym in the dead of night, causing people to freak out.

People immediately claimed that the Articuno was a hoax, in part because the email the woman provided as proof misspelled Articuno as “Articundo.” The woman’s father even went as far as to post a live stream of him opening the app up and then showing off Articuno, but people still didn’t believe her.

A day later, Niantic announced that it had reclaimed both an Articuno and a Ditto mistakenly sent to another player in California, seemingly confirming the woman’s story.

Articuno appearing at Pokemon Go Fest would not only please the largest group of players (since Team Mystic is Pokemon Go‘s biggest team,) it could also signal that Articundo is finally making its way home to its trainer after nearly a year away.

Lugia

The mascot of Pokemon Silver, Lugia is considered the “master” of the Legendary Birds and was the star of the second Pokemon movie. Lugia was also associated with the “Team Harmony” fan group, which preached cordiality between all three Pokemon Go teams.

Lugia had a prominent spot in the just released Pokemon Go trailer and seems to be the face of Pokemon Go‘s new Legendary Initiative. The game’s Legendary logo features Lugia’s head and players who beat a Legendary Raid will get a medal featuring Lugia.

Since Legendary Raids will require the cooperation between players of all three teams, maybe Lugia will make an appearance in honor of Team Harmony.

Ho-Oh

Ho-Oh has long been associated with new adventures and beginnings within the Pokemon franchise. Ho-Oh made its first appearance in the very first episode of the Pokemon anime, where it inspired Ash and Pikachu to always seek out new adventures and journeys.

That story is the center of the new Pokemon movie, which came out earlier this month in Japan. Because of Ho-Oh’s appearance in the movie, it’s a featured Pokemon on a ton of new merchandise due out later this year in the US and Japan.

Another part of the new movie merchandise campaign is Pikachu sporting Ash’s iconic hat. Not only is “Ash Hat Pikachu” springing up on merchandise around the world, it also made an appearance in Pokemon Go as part of the game’s ongoing Anniversary Event.

If Pokemon Go wants to keep the cross-platform Pokemon synergy going, we could see Ho-Oh make its first appearance this weekend. However, if we had to take a guess, we’d bet that Pokemon Go is saving Ho-Oh for next month’s Pikachu Outbreak event in Japan.