The Detective Pikachu movie, a western live-action film based on the Japanese-only 3DS game, has cast its first actor. The unknown role is being handled by Justice Smith, a relative unknown that has appeared in Netflix's The Get Down and the upcoming Jurassic World follow-up.
The movie is still in early production, so not much is known besides the movie's premise and this new casting. The game's original premise is that a detective transformed into a Pikachu, but retained his ability to speak, well, I guess Japanese since the game didn't leave the country. The 3DS game was supposed to be episodic, but only one episode ever came out, though it was a self-contained story.
Fans in America circulated a petition to have Danny DeVito play Detective Pikachu in the english version of the game. The petition reached 40,000 signatures, leading DeVito to publicly decline auditioning for the role.
Last month, rumors circulated that Legendary was considering casting well-known action stars as Detective Pikachu. It had been reported before that Gravity Falls' creator Alex Hirsch and Guardians of the Galaxy's writer Nicole Perlman were writing the script.
[Source: Hollywood Reporter]