Legendary Pictures is adapting Pokémon for the big screen, with a live-action Detective Pikachu movie in the works. There are few details known about the Hollywood production yet, but fans have already got their casting choice for the lead on lock: diminutive character actor Danny DeVito.
To those out of the loop, this may seem like a bizarre pick for Pikachu. Yet fans have clamored to hear DeVito’s voice come out of the electric mouse’s smiling face since the first trailer dropped for Great Detective Pikachu, a Nintendo 3DS game that launched in Japan in February. In the eShop-exclusive adventure game spinoff, the titular Pokémon has a deep, adult male voice, surprising fans who are more accustomed to its cutesy squeaks.
As a joke, fans named DeVito as their choice for the English version’s Detective Pikachu. A Western release remains unconfirmed, however, and DeVito himself told an audience this past spring that he was unfamiliar with the franchise.
That hasn’t stopped Pokémon lovers and the internet at large from pitching DeVito for the Hollywood adaptation, now that it’s reportedly been fast-tracked for a 2017 release. A teaser poster bearing his name is a top post on Reddit, with commenters begging for DeVito to make the shortlist.
When the live-action feature news hit Twitter, fans responded accordingly on social media as well.
THEY'RE ACTUALLY MAKING THE LIVE ACTION POKEMON MOVIE CONFIRMED BUT IT'S "DETECTIVE PIKACHU"??? WHAT? WILL DANNY DEVITO BE STARRING Y/N???
— #MURMUR (@taylortexas) July 21, 2016
This will be a flop of a movie if @DannyDeVito doesn't voice Pikachu in the english version https://t.co/r0lYSwINQc
— Rossᕕ( ⁰ ▽ ⁰ )ᕗ (@YourPalRoss) July 20, 2016
I have no desire for the detective pikachu movie unless its voiced by Danny Devito
— Dansune Miku (@FirstKnivesClub) July 20, 2016
If danny devito plays movie picachu i will walk into the ocean knowin everything was right in the world and my time to end was there
— GIGABEETLE (@GIGABEETLE) July 20, 2016
@Polygon Only one choice for voice actor, really... https://t.co/XqQpKvcCPd
— Chris Hannard (@ChrisHannard) July 20, 2016
Some have other, more Oscar-winning ideas for the lead role of the sleuthing Pikachu, however.
list of people who should play detective pikachu: paul giamatti, steve buscemi, helen mirren, marion cotillard, daniel day-lewis, meryl stre
— SungWon Cho (ProZD) (@prozdkp) July 21, 2016
We’ll find out more about who will play Detective Pikachu — assuming it even speaks English, not Pikachu, in this Western take — closer to the production’s start date.