Last updated on September 3, 2026
Pokemon is heading back to the big screen for the first time in seven years, and the studio behind the project has chosen a very different kind of hero this time around. During the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokemon World Championships in San Francisco, The Pokemon Company revealed Pokemon: Wild Card, a brand new animated feature set to arrive starting in 2027.
Rather than following a young trainer chasing gym badges, Wild Card centers on a competitive player of the Pokemon Trading Card Game determined to become a champion, alongside his partner Mimikyu.
Announced in front of the perfect audience
The choice of venue for the reveal was no accident. The World Championships is the biggest annual event on the competitive Pokemon calendar, bringing together top players across the Trading Card Game, the core video games, and Pokemon GO. The 2026 edition took place in San Francisco with more than two million dollars in prize money on the line.
It is hard to imagine a more fitting crowd to unveil a film about someone chasing the exact same dream. The Pokemon Company president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara introduced the lead character as a Trading Card Game player who fights and gives everything to become champion, a description clearly aimed at the competitors sitting in the room.
The first teaser, a brief 39 second clip, shows the protagonist seated at a card table with a Mimikyu card in play. The Ghost type Pokemon will serve as his partner throughout the story, and later footage reveals him wearing a yellow hoodie styled after the character, named Mikiya in early reporting on the project.
A movie built by a new team
For Wild Card, Pokemon has partnered with CloverWorks, the animation studio behind titles such as Spy x Family, My Dress Up Darling, and Bocchi the Rock. This marks the first mainline Pokemon film not produced by OLM, the studio responsible for every previous entry in the franchise.
The film will be directed by Katsuhiko Kitada, known for his work as unit director on The First Slam Dunk and as an animation director on Attack on Titan and Naruto Shippuden. Character designs come from Akemi Hayashi, whose credits include Banana Fish and Lazarus, while Story Inc. is producing.
Wild Card is officially the 24th animated film in the Pokemon franchise, and the first since Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, which premiered in Japan in December 2020 before reaching international audiences the following year.
Release window and what comes next
The Pokemon Company has stayed quiet on both the plot details and an exact release date so far. The teaser simply promises the film will arrive starting in 2027 and beyond, wording that has led some fans to speculate Wild Card could be the opening chapter of something larger rather than a standalone film.
The timing lines up with a busy year for the franchise. 2027 is also set to bring Pokemon Winds and Waves, the next generation of core video games, along with Pokemon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d and Pichu, a stop motion series from Aardman streaming on Disney Plus.
For now, the biggest open question is whether Wild Card can turn a card game competition into a Pokemon adventure with wide appeal, or whether it will end up speaking mostly to players already invested in the Trading Card Game. Either way, it is the clearest sign yet that Pokemon is ready to expand its animated universe well beyond the usual trainer and starter formula.
I’m passionate about books and video games. These two great passions represent, for me, a boundless universe where I can “escape” from reality whenever I need or want to. There are so many stories, worlds, and landscapes where I can instantly teleport that I don’t think a whole lifetime would be enough to explore them all (though it would be my greatest dream to be able to).
