--- title: Pokemon Will Be a Live-Action Movie Theaters in 2017 description: Pokémon is finding new life on the big screen with the first ever live-action film based on the “gotta catch ‘em all” franchise. canonical: https://time.com/4417589/pokemon-live-action-movie/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-21T18:40:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:27:00.383Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: There's Already a Pokémon Live Action Movie Coming to Theaters og:description: Starring Detective Pikachu og:url: https://time.com/4417589/pokemon-live-action-movie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4635755edbe51038/69889ea2428a9e9304cd3870/pokemon-movie-live-action.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pokemon 3 Movie Stills og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's Already a Pokémon Live Action Movie Coming to Theaters twitter:description: Starring Detective Pikachu twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4635755edbe51038/69889ea2428a9e9304cd3870/pokemon-movie-live-action.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's Already a Pokémon Live-Action Movie Coming to Theaters by [Evan Slead / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Evan Slead / Entertainment Weekly Jul 21, 2016 6:40 PM UTC  Ash, Pikachu and Misty (background) in 4Kids Entertainment's animated adventure "Pokemon3," distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Ash, Pikachu and Misty (background) in 4Kids Entertainment's animated adventure "Pokemon3," distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.Warner Bros. Pictures/Getty Images by [Evan Slead / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Evan Slead / Entertainment Weekly Jul 21, 2016 6:40 PM UTC Pokémon is finding new life on the big screen with the first ever live-action film based on the “gotta catch ‘em all” franchise, EW has learned. Legendary Entertainment and The Pokémon Company have teamed up, double-battle style, to announce the new film series. The story will follow Detective Pikachu, the recent character created through the Japanese game of the same name, with additional details kept under wraps at the moment. The video game version follows Tim Goodman, a young man who heads to Rhyme City in search of his missing father, where he meets Pikachu. While this will be the first live-action film, the franchise has had life on the big screen in animated form, as _Pokémon: The First Movie_ was released in the U.S. in November 1999\. The hit film was followed by _Pokémon: The Movie 2000_, _Pokémon 3: The Movie_, _Pokémon 4Ever_, and _Pokémon Heroes_. Pokémon has experienced a resurgence in the cultural zeitgeist thanks to the [mobile game _Pokémon Go_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/18/pokemon-go-creators-niantic-interview), finally allowing trainers to catch the original Kanto pocket monsters in the real world. The series was first introduced in 1996, with 279 million video games sold worldwide, according to The Pokémon Company, 21.5 billion trading cards shipped to 74 countries, and an animated series that has run for 19 seasons to date. Universal Pictures all handle distribution of the film outside of Japan, while The Pokémon Company’s long time movie collaborator, Toho, will handle the distribution in Japan. The film will be fast-tracked for production start in 2017. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/20/pokemon-live-action-film-treatment) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4417589/pokemon-live-action-movie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4417589/pokemon-live-action-movie/"},"headline":"There's Already a Pokémon Live-Action Movie Coming to Theaters","datePublished":"2016-07-21T18:40:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:27:00.383Z","description":"Starring Detective Pikachu","url":"https://time.com/4417589/pokemon-live-action-movie/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4635755edbe51038/69889ea2428a9e9304cd3870/pokemon-movie-live-action.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Evan Slead / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4635755edbe51038/69889ea2428a9e9304cd3870/pokemon-movie-live-action.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pokemon 3 Movie Stills","caption":"Ash, Pikachu and Misty (background) in 4Kids Entertainment's animated adventure \"Pokemon3,\" distributed by Warner Bros. 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