After many years of waiting, it looks like Detective Pikachu 2 is finally in the works. Despite a sequel being announced shortly after the first movie in 2019, we haven’t heard anything about it until now.
Sources from Legendary Entertainment told Polygon that the Pokémon movie sequel is still “in active development.” Beyond that, the source didn’t state who would be involved in the new movie or if Ryan Reynolds would be returning.
It seems that a lot of the original team who worked on the first movie won’t be returning for Detective Pikachu 2. The first movie’s writers, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez are currently working on Koala Man with Hugh Jackman, though they did express interest in returning.
Justice Smith, the lead human of the first film, previously stated that he didn’t think a sequel was happening. Smith’s statement and the lack of reports is why many thought that a sequel wouldn’t happen in the first place.
To be fair, the ending to Detective Pikachu did make it seem like a self-contained tale as every plot point had been solved. Everything from Detective Pikachu’s identity to the villain’s plans was revealed and resolved, leaving very little to follow up on. There wasn’t even an MCU-style post-credits scene to spark interest in a sequel.
Funnily enough, this isn’t the only Detective Pikachu-related mystery going on right now. The Pokémon Company originally announced an enhanced version of the Detective Pikachu game would be coming to Switch. However, like Detective Pikachu 2, we haven’t seen anything related to the game announced since.
Read More: Fan recreates the saddest Pokémon anime scene in Scarlet and Violet
Despite all of these hiccups surrounding Detective Pikachu, the Pokémon franchise is doing just fine. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were the fastest-selling Switch games ever, even with all of the technical issues. Ash is finally leaving the Pokémon anime after many years, though he will have two replacements to carry on the show’s torch.