Some new information about Warner Bros. and Legendary's
Detective Pikachu live-action movie has surfaced, hinting at the studio considering Danny DeVito in the role of Pikachu — during early stages of production — instead of Ryan Reynolds.
According to Warner Bros. Producer Cale Boyter and VFX Producer Greg Baxter, the studio tested casting Danny DeVito as the Detective Pikachu character, as they were aware of fans wanting him to voice Pikachu pretty much since the video game was localized outside of Japan.
"
We definitely thought about it and how it might inform the spirit of it. Danny is incredible by the way. I am a huge fan of Danny DeVito," revealed Boyter.
Baxter says that during early stages of production they did test how DeVito's sound would match Pikachu and, while he remembers the experience to be a fun one, he has no idea why DeVito didn't end up being cast. "
It was really very funny, so I couldn’t speak to all the reasons why it wasn’t Danny DeVito cast. I love Danny and some point maybe after the movie comes about, we can share those early tests. It’s absolutely hilarious."
When it comes to the
Detective Pikachu video game, the Pikachu character does sound like DeVito in the localized version, so it would've definitely been interesting to see him playing the character in Legendary's film. Hopefully we luck out and the studio does end up releasing those early tests. Until then, fans will still likely enjoy Ryan Reynolds in the roles when
Detective Pikachu hits theatres on the
10th of May.
The first-ever live-action Pokémon movie, “POKÉMON Detective Pikachu” stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular character in the first-ever live-action movie based on the iconic face of the global Pokémon brand—one of the world’s most popular, multi-generation entertainment properties and most successful media franchises of all time.
Detective Pikachu will release in theatres on the 10th of May in 2019.