McDonald's Pokemon Happy Meal Promotion Leaks Early

An upcoming McDonald's Happy Meal promotion celebrating Pokemon's 25th anniversary has leaked early. Ads spotted at various local McDonald's confirmed that the popular fast food chain would start its Pokemon 25th anniversary celebration beginning on February 9th. Each Happy Meal will come with four Pokemon trading cards along with sticker sheets and various other Pokemon goods. Each Pokemon trading card (the existence of which leaked last year) is technically a reprint of an older Pokemon card featuring various Starter Pokemon, but are printed on a special McDonald's holofoil and feature the Pokemon 25th anniversary logo. No end date was given for the promotion. You can check out one of the local ads below:

It appears that the McDonald's Pokémon Happy Meal promotion has leaked and is expected to start in the US next month! pic.twitter.com/jNC6rCGwjJ

— PokéJungle (@pokejungle) January 28, 2021

Notably, The Pokemon Company is providing McDonald's with even more cards than usual. While past Pokemon promotions as McDonald's have come with a single Pokemon trading card (from a mini-set of 12), this promotion features 4 cards in each set out of a possible 25 choices.

The Happy Meal promotion is just one of the many ways that The Pokemon Company is celebrating the franchise's 25th anniversary. The Pokemon TCG is also releasing jumbo-sized cards that reprint the first appearance of every Starter Pokemon, and are also releasing a special "Shining Fates" set with over 100 different Shiny Pokemon.

Also on the docket is the upcoming P25 Music collaboration with singers such as Katy Perry, and a ton of new crossovers with various brands. The Pokemon Company is also releasing a full slate of games this year. Confirmed games include New Pokemon Snap and Pokemon UNITE, and it is widely speculated that a new set of Pokemon games will be released later this year, likely remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.