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U.S.-produced Netflix Pokemon live-action series reportedly on the way

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By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

Netflix has been announcing live-action versions of popular anime series at a frantic pace over the last two years, with plans to make their own non-animated versions of some of Japan’s most beloved franchises. Now it seems like there’s another property on the streaming giant’s quest to adapt ‘em all, and it’s reportedly none other than Pokemon.

U.S. entertainment website Variety says that a live-action Pokemon series is in “early development” at Netflix with Joe Henderson as writer and executive producer. Henderson is currently serving as co-show runner for the series "Lucifer," itself an adaptation of a DC comics series that ran for three seasons on fox before Netflix gave it a new lease on life after a one-year hiatus.

Considering the divisive reaction to Netflix’s live-action "Death Note" back in 2017, it might seem like a gutsy choice to take on the task of adapting Pokemon, a series with an even more passionate and vocal existing fanbase. However, Netflix stands to benefit from how the Pokemon community is actually made up of a number of subsets. Not all fans of the Pokemon games watch every episode of the anime, and vice-versa, so as long as Netflix stays true to the broad-stroke worldview and lore that stretches across the various branches of the Pokemon multimedia franchise, the live-action series might be able to earn enough goodwill to earn fans’ acceptance of original characters and story, as was the case with Legendary Pictures’ Pokemon Detective Pikachu in 2019.

However, while Variety cites “sources” in its report, Netflix itself has not yet made any official announcement about a live-action Pokemon series. If and when they do, we probably won’t be seeing it until sometime next year at the earliest, assuming that Henderson currently has his hands full with the sixth and final season of "Lucifer," which releases in September. Meanwhile, there are still those live-action Netflix versions of "Cowboy Bebop," "Gundam," "Yu Yu Hakusho" and "One Piece" in the works

Source: Variety via Deadline via Jin

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© SoraNews24

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3 Comments
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Netflix really is scraping the barrel. A live Pokemon sounds pretty dire.

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Finally! One of America’s most-endearing ‘cultural legacies’ will return to it’s origins in a crossover of genres in an exciting ‘re-envisioning’ along with the Pokémon Universe. It’s rumored Bruce Campbell is ‘in talks’ to return as an older, wiser yet, recently retired & married Ash Ketchum-Williams (aka: Satoshi in Japan). He will team up with Detective Pikachu to solve mysteries while hunting down the source of evil, dead Pokémon that have been accidentally released. “Gotta Ketchum ALL!” - Thank the gods that Netflix got a hold of this franchise before Disney+! -

*- Disclaimer: “while Variety cites “sources” in its report, Netflix itself has not yet made any official announcement about a live-action Pokemon series.’ -*

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@snowymountainhell - I'd watch that.

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