There have been many attempts at replicating the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most of which have failed (ahem, Dark Universe), but if anyone can do it, it’s Pikachu. The electric rodent with the even-more-electric personality stars in Detective Pikachu, in which he plays a — spoiler — detective. The trailers for the live-action film with photorealistic Pokémon have been a hit, and there’s already talk of the film launching the Pokémon Cinematic Universe. PCU: it’s more than just a Jeremy Piven movie from the 1990s.
“[Pokémon is] such a rich universe. There are so many ways you can go inside of it,” Legendary Entertainment producer Ali Mendes told IGN about the prospect of expanding the world of Pokemon beyond Pikachu (the film is a joint venture between Legendary, Warner Bros., and the Pokémon Company). “We’re trying to get the first movie right, and then once we’ve done that, we’ll see where we go from there, but absolutely. There are a lot of opportunities.”
Unfortunately, one misstep has already been made: choosing Ryan Reynolds over Danny DeVito as the voice of Pikachu. I come here not to bury Deadpool, but rather, to dream of a world where Pikachu boasts about his “magnum dong.” Here’s the lowdown via Nerdist:
While it will never see the light of day and it was purely for fun, Nerdist has learned that the visual effects team used Danny DeVito’s voice from shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia while testing Detective Pikachu‘s animation and to assist with the casting process.
“Yeah, we threw some of his… Always Sunny in Philadelphia… in as well, I mean, we really tried a range of actors. Different pitches, different sounds of voice, different… big, small, everywhere in between” visual effects producer Greg Baxter said. But once they heard Ryan Reynolds, “it was kind of game over. That was amazing.” Oh well, at least we’ll always have this video.
