Ryan Reynolds Shares Behind-The-Scenes Photo Of Detective Pikachu

While there was initially quite a bit of skepticism surrounding Warner Bros' Detective Pikachu release, when its trailer hit, many fans found themselves unexpectedly excited for the first live-action Pokémon movie.

Much of Detective Pikachu's early zing with audiences has been thanks to Ryan Reynolds' voice role as the iconic adorable yellow Pokémon, alongside Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's breakout star Justice Smith. Now Reynolds' is sharing a little behind-the-scenes look at his how he became the furry detective on screen. Take a look:

Ryan Reynolds in motion capture as Detective Pikachu in 2019 film

(Image credit: (Ryan Reynolds / Warner Bros.))

Ryan Reynolds recently shared the image on his Instagram, with the caption "Pika-dots." Looking at the split-screen picture, we can see a bit of the Deadpool actor in Pikachu as they both share deep brown eyes and a familiar smirk. The image shows that the famed Pokémon will have a bit more of Reynolds in him besides his voice, with the help of motion capture technology.

This definitely makes us curious about how Ryan Reynolds might have interacted on set with the other actors while in motion capture. Was he squatting to Pikachu-size on the sets alongside Justice Smith, delivering his lines and acting like the lovable Pokémon? More footage cannot come soon enough.

It's certainly exciting to know that Ryan Reynolds isn't just voicing the role of Detective Pikachu. The image confirms that his face was captured while delivering the lines too, bringing out a more complete performance from the actor.

Ryan Reynolds is exceptional at comedic timing, and the fact that his voice is inside a cute little Pikachu dressed in a Sherlock Holmes hat means a ton of hilarious and adorable moments are certain to come in the movie.

Fans of the Pokémon franchise certainly wouldn't have guessed that the spinoff game Detective Pikachu would be the first to be adapted by a major studio, or that the quick-witted voice of Deadpool would be the star, but here we are!

The trailer displays a promising live-action introduction to the world of Pokémon by focusing on the story of Tim Goodman as he teams up with Pikachu. Tim is the only one who can understand Pikachu speak words other than "pika-pika," and they work together to find Tim's missing father, who was a gifted police detective.

Detective Pikachu also teased tons of Pokémon from the familiar world -- including charizards, jigglypuffs, and bulbasaurs -- with room for other Pokémon references yet to be seen.

The movie comes from director Rob Letterman, who has steered some other family-friendly films in the past, including Goosebumps, Gulliver's Travels and Shark Tale. Detective Pikachu also stars Ken Watanbe, Karan Soni, Bill Nighy, Kathyrn Newton, and Suki Waterhouse. It comes to theaters on May 10, 2019, along with tons of other exciting releases in the new year.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.