Will There Be a ‘Detective Pikachu 2’?

Detective Pikachu premiered in 2019 and was just off-the-wall enough to be intriguing. The film sees Ryan Reynolds voicing a wise-cracking, super-sleuthing Detective Pikachu. Detective Pikachu is the Pokémon partner of Harry Goodman (Reynolds), a Ryme City police detective who has gone missing. Harry’s disappearance causes his estranged son, Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), to reluctantly team up with Pikachu to find his father. Tim gave up his dreams of being a Pokémon trainer when his mother died, however, this adventure with Pikachu may lead him to discover a new passion.

The film is based on the Pokémon franchise and is very loosely inspired by the 2016 video game Detective Pikachu. Detective Pikachu received some mixed reviews, but it was a box office success, grossing $433 million against a budget of $150 million. The film mainly missed its mark story-wise with a thin plot that didn’t leave room for a lot of excitement or action. However, the visual effects are stunning, Pikachu is absolutely adorable, and Reynolds’ performance as Pikachu is the best part of the film.

Detective Pikachu wasn’t an outstanding film, but it was entertaining and funny. Hence, there are definitely fans of Detective Pikachu who are holding out for a sequel.

So, will there be a Detective Pikachu 2?

The answer as to whether there will be a Detective Pikachu 2 or not, is a bit complicated. Technically, Detective Pikachu 2 was actually confirmed before the first film even premiered. Legendary Pictures announced a sequel was in development as early as January of 2019 and that Oren Uziel had signed on as screenwriter. However, 3.5 years have passed since that announcement and things have gone radio silent about Detective Pikachu 2.

There has been no confirmation that the film is still being developed, and Smith himself gave a rather bleak update. In an interview with Inverse, Smith stated:

I don’t know if it’s going to happen. I think we have to just kind of bury our hopes. I don’t think it’s going to happen. I really hope so though. Honestly, I’m such a huge fan, who knows, who knows? I hope so.

So, things don’t look good, but if Smith is still hopeful, then we can still hope for it, too. The consensus seems to be that no one really knows what is happening with Detective Pikachu 2. Since Legendary Pictures hasn’t confirmed a cancellation, it almost seems as if it is still in early development. However, if even the cast themselves don’t believe it will happen, that certainly suggests the sequel plans might’ve fallen through. Ultimately, though, we’ll just have to wait for an official cancellation or update before we know for sure if Detective Pikachu 2 is happening or not.

(featured image: Warner Bros.)