The Pokémon Company announced a new feature-length animated film during the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, held Sunday in San Francisco. The film is titled Pokémon: Wild Card and is set for a worldwide theatrical release in 2027.
A short teaser trailer was released alongside the announcement. It features a Pokémon Trading Card Game player and a ghost-type Pokémon named Mimikyu.
The Story and Its Characters
As reported by Deadline, the film follows a TCG player and his partner Mimikyu as they work toward a high-stakes goal. The teaser shows Mimikyu wearing a yellow hoodie.
The clip also notes the film is coming in 2027 “and beyond,” suggesting additional projects may follow.
Mimikyu first appeared in the 2016 video games Pokémon Sun and Moon. The character disguises itself under a rag painted to resemble Pikachu, driven by a desire to be accepted.
It has since appeared across multiple games, the trading card game, and the Pokémon anime series.
Fans already know this one.
The most recent Pokémon theatrical film, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, was released in Japan in 2020 and in the United States the following year.
Production Team
Director Katsuhiko Kitada is leading the project, with character design handled by Akemi Hayashi. Japanese animation studio CloverWorks is producing the animation. STORY inc. serves as the film’s producer.
CloverWorks is Tokyo-based. The studio is known for its work on other high-profile anime productions.
Broader Pokémon Expansion
The Wild Card announcement came days after a separate deal involving the franchise. Disney+ recently greenlit Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu, a new stop-motion series under a global distribution agreement with The Pokémon Company International.
That series is set to debut on Disney XD and stream on Disney+ in 2027.
More Pokémon is coming fast.
The two projects together mark a notable expansion of Pokémon content across both theaters and streaming platforms heading into next year.