Variety broke the exclusive news that Lucifer executive producer Joe Henderson is “attached to write and produce” a live-action Pokémon series for Netflix. Henderson’s current title is that of co-showrunner for Netflix’s Lucifer, as the series reaches its sixth and final season. Sources at Variety also reported that the live-action series is looking to match the same style of Detective Pikachu, the 2019 comedy starring Justice Smith and Ryan Reynolds.
Netflix’s Pokémon selection could do with more additions to its catalog currently available and a live-action series may not be the worst thing to consider, so long as the franchise can be done justice with it. Detective Pikachu grossed $144.1 million in the US and Canada, and $288.9 million in other parts of the globe, bringing the worldwide total to $433 million, and with a production budget of $150 million, Detective Pikachu was a massive W.
The last handful of years have seen a major uptick in Pokémon-related products, games, streaming content, and more becoming popular, with even retail stores closing their doors to Pokémon card connoisseurs when scalpers ruthlessly hunted down booster boxes and packs during the pandemic. Whether or not this new Netflix series is on track to becoming a major success remains to be seen, as details are sparse.