Live-action Pokemon series reportedly in the works at Netflix

A live-action Pokemon project from Lucifer’s Joe Henderson is said to be in the early stages

Brace yourself for more surprisingly fleshy sights that cannot be unseen — there’s potentially more live-action Pokemon on the way, this time from Netflix.

According to a report from Variety, a live-action Pokemon series is in the works at Netflix with Joe Henderson (Lucifer) on deck as a writer and executive producer. It could work!

The project is “in its early days,” with no known plot details to leak yet. As Variety puts it, sources say the Netflix show “would be a live-action series akin to the Detective Pikachu film starring Ryan Reynolds and Justice Smith that was released in 2019.”

It’s a very game-friendly time at Netflix, with new show announcements popping up left and right, to say nothing of literal video games. Pokemon is as popular as ever, and Detective Pikachu helped clear the path for more live-action media. It’s easy to see how something like this would get greenlit. That said, what kind of scope are we talking?

I think many of us would be open to this series conceptually, it just boils down to the VFX budget and timeline, really. We have certain expectations for what live-action Pokemon should look like on a technical level. The story and characters, though? Run wild with it. Do your own imaginative thing (as much as The Pokemon Company lets you, anyway).

While we’re on the topic of Detective Pikachu, it’s a bummer that we seemingly won’t get a sequel anytime soon, if ever — though that leaves a window of opportunity for Netflix’s series to stand out more. The movie was better than expected, particularly as a first effort. Hopefully this series, if and when it finally comes together, will carry the CG torch well.

I have just one request for the creators: please do not bring Probopass into our reality. I won’t be able to cope.