Ryan Reynolds Pranks Fans With Detective Pikachu 'Leak'

Ryan Reynolds Pranks Fans With Detective Pikachu ‘Leak’

There’s only a few days left until audiences finally get to travel to Ryme City and experience the first live-action adaptation of the Pokemon franchise with Detective Pikachu. In typical fashion, star Ryan Reynolds took to Twitter with a video claiming to be a YouTube link to the full video but is actually a prank with 100 minutes of the titular creature aerobicizing. Check it out in the player below!

Um…. Attn @DetPikachuMovie @warnerbros https://t.co/UF7qYtKOYV

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) May 7, 2019

The video, which is watermarked with R. Reynolds in an added bit of “authenticity,” starts off in a very believable way as the logos of Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures and The Pokemon Company all play and we get a clip of Justice Smith’s Tim Goodman walking down the street towards an unknown building but as music kicks in and we see him look towards something, we are treated to the yellow electric Pokemon dancing in a studio for almost the entirety of the actual film’s runtime, pulling the rug out from anyone who thought they would be getting to pirate the film early .

The Detective Pikachu movie’s eclectic cast consists of Golden Globe nominee Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) as the titular talking Pokemon with Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies), Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai), Suki Waterhouse (Assassination Nation), Rita Ora (Fifty Shades Freed) and Golden Globe winner Bill Nighy (Gideon’s Daughter). Smith will star as a teen whose father is kidnapped which leads him to Reynolds’ Pikachu and Kathryn Newton as a young journalist who team up in order to find him.

Goosebumps helmer Rob Letterman is on directing duty while Mary Parent (The Revenant) and Cale Boyter are producing the film for Legendary Entertainment. The screenplay was written by Letterman and Nicole Perlman.

Pokémon has delighted fans of all ages around the world for over two decades. With more than 300 million video games sold worldwide, 23.6 billion Pokémon TCG cards shipped to 74 countries, and an animated series spanning 20 seasons, Pokémon is one of the most successful entertainment properties in the world.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ will release the film in theaters on May 10.