'Deadpool 2' Actor Ryan Reynolds to Star in 'Detective Pikachu'

The same man that brought an R-rated Deadpool to the big screen is suiting up to be a very different hero: Detective Pikachu.

What?

You read that correctly. According to an announcement from The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, Ryan Reynolds has been cast to star in the upcoming live-action Detective Pikachu movie. We sincerely hope that means we’ll get a few Pokémon-related meta jokes in Deadpool 2, which the actor also stars in. (In the first Deadpool, Reynolds referenced many of his previous roles and accolades through the character because Deadpool often breaks the Fourth Wall.)

When most readers think of the beloved yellow Pokémon mascot, they probably think of Ash Ketchum’s trusty Pikachu from the anime. He’s aversive to going inside Poké Balls and, like most Pokémon, says only his name in different tones to communicate. But this is Detective Pikachu, a noir investigator with a penchant for wielding his wits and magnifying glass rather than thunderbolts. He also wears a hat like Sherlock Holmes in hopes that you’ll take him seriously.

Oh, and he can talk, so this Electric mouse is more like Meowth from the anime than Ash’s Pikachu.

So far, Detective Pikachu has only appeared in a 3DS video game called Great Detective Pikachu, but the upcoming film will offer a new story for the investigator.

Because Detective Pikachu is live action, Reynolds will provide the motion capture and voice for the character, closer to what we usually get from the likes of Andy Serkis in roles such as Gollum from Lord of the Rings and Supreme Leader Snoke from Star Wars. He’ll star alongside Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies).

In the story, Detective Pikachu is recruited to help find the father of Smith’s character after he’s kidnapped. Newton plays a journalist that assists them in the investigation.

The plot already sounds like a departure from the game it’s loosely based on. In Great Detective Pikachu, only a young man named Tim Goodman can understand what Detective Pikachu is saying for some reason. They solve a few cases with Tim assuming the role of a Watson-esque sidekick and interpreter. Other Pokémon factor into the story, including some more “normal,” non-detective Pikachu.

Will the live-action movie follow suit to an extent, meaning we’ll get other CGI Pokémon digitally inserted? Or will they just drop Reynold’s Detective Pikachu into the real world to solve mysteries? Either way, this is going to be interesting, especially when Deadpool makes inevitable jokes about it.

Detective Pikachu has no scheduled release date, but you can see Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2 in theaters on June 1, 2018.