Detective Pikachu: Ryan Reynolds Shines In First Trailer

The first trailer for Detective Pikachu is here, and it appears that star Ryan Reynolds has found another role he was born to play.

Reynolds, who is voicing the diminutive detective, looks to be bringing all of the trademark wit — but none of the jaw-dropping vulgarity — that he brought to the Deadpool series. The trailer was released this morning on Warner Brothers Pictures' YouTube channel. 

Based on the Nintendo 3DS game of the same name, the live-action Detective Pikachu will follow the adventures of Tim Goodman (Justice Smith), a teen who once had designs on becoming a world-famous Pokemon trainer. When his father goes missing, he reluctantly finds himself assisted by "world-class detective" Pikachu, whom only he can understand (everyone else, of course, just hears "Pika Pika!")

The trailer promises a healthy dose of the Reynolds zaniness, with Smith (who recently appeared in Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom) serving as an appropriately flummoxed straight man for the endlessly wise-cracking Pikachu. There also looks to be plenty of fan service on tap, with more Pokemon-related Easter eggs crammed into the trailer than one might reasonably expect to find in the entire movie.

Fans have been waiting for a first look at Detective Pikachu since 2016, when the film rights were acquired by Legendary Pictures in the wake of the dizzying success of the Pokemon Go mobile game. While Go fever has cooled considerably in the intervening years, fan enthusiasm for the venerable game franchise remains as strong as ever. 2017's Pokken Tournament DX for the Nintendo Switch has moved north of 1.3 million units since its release, and 2018's free-to-play Pokemon Quest for Switch, Android and iOS has notched over 7 million downloads.

As such, Legendary is hoping that anticipation will be high for the first big-budget, live-action Pokemon feature. The flick is being directed by Rob Letterman (Monsters vs. Aliens), who co-wrote the screenplay along with Guardians of the Galaxy scribe Nicole Perlman. Also included in the cast are Billionaire Boys Club actress Suki Waterhouse, Rita Ora of the Fifty Shades film series, and the legendary Japanese actor Ken Watanabe.

To nobody's surprise, Reynolds took to Twitter to announce the new trailer with a characteristically Reynolds-ian comment: "I think we all knew I'd wind up as a miniature detective repeatedly saying the same two words. Just didn't think it'd be this soon."

Detective Pikachu hits screens on May 10, 2019.