There is no such thing as a day off at Netflix. The giant streaming platform churns new projects out at an outrageous pace. The big news of the day comes from a new series in early development at the company. According to Deadline, a live-action Pokémon series is on the way.
There are not many franchises that have been able to have the longevity and diversity that Pokémon has had. Created in 1995 by Satoshi Tajiri, the franchise began as a video game. From there, it has spawned multiple more games, an extremely popular card game, and too many television series to count.
One of the biggest additions to the Pokémon universe was the 2019 Detective Pikachu movie starring Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) and Justice Smith (Genera+ion). The live-action film was a major success at the box office making $430 million worldwide. The fact that the franchise is in its 26th year and still reaching new heights shows the interest and fanbase that it still has.
Netflix is hoping to tap into the international fanbase with the new live-action series. They already have many of the animated series available for streaming on the service including, among others, Pokémon: Indigo and Pokémon Journeys. Also, with another major kid’s animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, being developed into a live-action show by Netflix, the streaming platform seems to be the right fit for a Pokémon reboot.
Sources close to the project told Deadline that co-showrunner and executive producer on Lucifer, Joe Henderson (White Collar), has been tapped as a writer and executive director for the show. There are no other details currently to be known as Netflix is keeping their cards close to their chests.
Stay tuned for more information as the show continues to work through the production process.