Ryan Reynolds Will Play the Titular Pokemon, Detective Pikachu (Seriously)

Uh, okay. Per THR, the live-action Pokemon movie based on Japanese game Detective Pikachu will have Ryan Reynolds voicing and performing motion capture for the titular character. We are still attempting to process this information.

The Detective Pikachu videogame focused on a boy and a talking Pikachu, who claims to have high intelligence and masterful detective abilities. The film project from Legendary and Universal has Rob Letterman (Goosebumps) attached to direct a screenplay from Alex Hirsch and Nicole Perlman, and has cast Justice Smith (The Get Down and the forthcoming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies, Lady Bird) as its leads. THR reports that the inciting incident will be the kidnapping of Smith’s character’s father, with Newton playing a journalist who assists Smith and the detective.

We knew that the studios involved would want to cast a big name for Detective Pikachu, but there was no way that any choice would make perfect sense (expect maybe Danny DeVito). With Van Wilder, Green Lantern, Deadpool, the guy who said “But why?; in the first Harold and Kumar and now Pikachu, Ryan Reynolds has quite the eclectic resume.