Pokémon: Wild Card animated movie unveiled ahead of 2027 release

• Pokémon: Wild Card will be the series' first feature-length movie since 2020's Pokémon: Secrets of the Jungle.
• The animated film will follow a new protagonist and a Mimikyu.

The Pokémon Company has unveiled the IP’s first animated movie in more than half a decade, titled Pokémon: Wild Card.

This feature-length film takes inspiration from the Pokémon TCG, set to follow an aspiring card player and the Pokémon Mimikyu.

The film is in production with Story inc. and CloverWorks. It’s expected to release "beginning in 2027".

An unexpected card

Pokémon: Wild Card was teased during last week’s annual esports event Pokémon Worlds. It’s being directed by Katsuhiko Kitada, whose credits include episodes of Attack on Titan, The Idolm@ster, Naruto: Shippuden and Makoto Shinkai movie The Place Promised in Our Early Years.

In the Wild Card teaser trailer, an unnamed individual can be seen playing with physical Pokémon cards including a Mimikyu. The species, first introduced to fans during Pokémon’s 20th anniversary year, can also be seen outside of the card, watching the moon.

This new movie has been announced during Pokémon’s 30th anniversary year, which has been full of celebrations across Pokémon Go, Pokémon Masters and outside its mobile library.

The feature film marks the series’ first animated movie since Secrets of the Jungle in 2020 and the first since Ash Ketchum’s departure from the animated series in 2023.

Since then, the brand has been exploring other forms of transmedia like various one-offs on YouTube and a stop-motion series on Netflix, Pokémon Concierge. Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu is also currently in development with Aardman, expected to release on Disney+ next year.

The announcement of Wild Card, meanwhile, follows the ongoing success of the Pokémon TCG and more recent boom of Pokémon Pocket, a mobile iteration of the card game and Pokémon’s fastest mobile title to reach $1 billion in player spending.

In fact, the announcement of Pokémon: Wild Card has followed just days after the reveal of a brand-new type of card in TCG Pocket: Dual-Type Pokémon. Mega Mewtwo X was shown to be Psychic and Fighting type as in the main series, where cards have always been one type only until now.

Whether Wild Card will be a one-off or spawn a series is ambiguous, "coming 2027 and beyond".