Pokemon Go Trailer Teases Arrival of Classic Pokemon Villain

A classic character from Pokemon Red & Blue could soon be appearing in Pokemon Go. Earlier today, Team Rocket officially started its invasion of Pokemon Go, bringing Shadow Pokemon in an attempt to take over PokeStops around the world. Pokemon Go released a trailer to promote the new event, which also potentially teases the involvement of Team Rocket’s leader Giovanni. Giovanni’s silhouette briefly appears about 21 seconds into the trailer, before flashing to silhouettes of Team Rocket grunts. In addition, the trailer ends with a quote from an unidentified person claiming that Earth will be the next place Team Rocket takes over. The quote mirrors a line Giovanni says at the end of Pokemon Ultra Sword & Ultra Shield’s Episode RR in which Giovanni (shown to be the leader of a multiversal Team Rainbow Rocket) ponders what world he should conquer next.

Giovanni is arguably the Pokemon franchise’s most well-known villain, having made appearances in Pokemon Red and Blue and their remakes. Giovanni also appears in Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, as well as Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 and Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. In his most recent appearance, Giovanni traveled to several alternate realities to collect versions of other Team Bosses and then invaded the main Pokemon world in order to create an army of Ultra Beasts to conquer all of reality. Giovanni also makes frequent appearances in the Pokemon anime series as Jessie and James’ oft-frustrated superior.

If Giovanni does appear in Pokemon Go, it would mark the first time that a Pokemon character from the main franchise appeared in the mobile game. While other events have referenced characters like Professor Oak or Ash Ketchum, we’ve never seen any “official” crossover between the mobile game and characters from the rest of the franchise. We’ll also note that Team Rocket’s Shadow Pokemon were introduced in Pokemon Coliseum, which marks another surprising crossover with another Pokemon game.