Detective Pikachu might have yet to release, but it looks like Legendary Pictures is hoping that the film helps establish a "Pokemon Cinematic Universe" soon.
Speaking with IGN during a set visit for Detective Pikachu, Legendary Entertainment producer Ali Mendes confirms the studio's hopes regarding a "Pokemon Cinematic Universe," saying that everyone's looking forward to the success of science fiction action comedy mystery film.
"[The Pokemon Universe] is such a rich universe," Ali tells the news outlet, "There are so many ways you can go inside of it. 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."
There's certainly a lot riding on Detective Pikachu, given Legendary Entertainment's plans for the PCU. Of course, fans are expecting a lot from the film. Not only do trailer for Detective Pikachu look enticing, but having a comic book actor like Ryan Reynolds voice the titular character certainly adds star power to the film.
If Detective Pikachu succeeds at the box office, the film won't have a problem sparking a cinematic universe. The Pokemon franchise is one of the biggest videogame franchises in the world. Not only does the franchise have a number of uber-successful games in its cards, but it also has a popular anime series and a number of anime films.
"Even the Pokemon themselves, there are eight hundred of them. We're going to have a lot of them in [Pokemon: Detective Pikachu], but we want to play with all of them at some point," Mendes said during the interview.
We wonder what other stories Legendary might work on after Detective Pikachu premieres.
Detective Pikachu makes its way to cinemas May 10.
Read: Number of Pokemon to Appear in Detective Pikachu Revealed