Detective Pikachu 2: Movie star says ‘I don’t think it will happen’

It’s unlikely that a second Detective Pikachu movie will be made, according to one of the first film’s stars.

Justice Smith told Inverse that as much as he’d like to be involved in a Detective Pikachu 2, he doesn’t think it will happen.

“I would love to participate in Detective Pikachu 2” Smith said, adding: “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.”

Released in May 2019, Detective Pikachu starred Smith as Tim Goodman, a former Pokémon trainer who teams up with a talking Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) to investigate the death of his father.

The movie was a box office hit, grossing $161 million worldwide during its opening weekend in May.

By the middle of June, it had become the highest-grossing film based on a video game, bringing in $436 million worldwide and surpassing the record previously set by Warcraft.

It looked like the Sonic the Hedgehog movie was set to beat this figure, after setting a record opening for a video game movie and breaking the $200 million barrier in its second week.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic then closed virtually all US theatres, essentially ending the Sonic movie’s cinema run and forcing Paramount Pictures to release the movie digitally and on Blu-Ray earlier than expected.

A second Sonic movie is now currently in production, with Knuckles and Tails joining the action.

Detective Pikachu’s director Rob Letterman is now directing a feature film adaptation of Ubisoft’s Beyond Good and Evil for Netflix.

Although a movie sequel is seemingly in doubt, a game sequel isn’t. The Pokémon Company announced in 2019 that a follow-up to 2016’s Detective Pikachu game is in development for Nintendo Switch at series collaborator Creatures Inc. It will continue the story of the original 3DS game.