Pokémon: Wild Card

Pokémon Puts the Card Table on the Big Screen

Pokémon: Wild Card is an original animated feature built around the Pokémon Trading Card Game rather than the franchise's usual creature-training adventure. Its hero is an aspiring card player chasing a championship, with Mimikyu beside him as both partner and an intriguing link between the cards and the wider Pokémon world.

Night Battles Give the Game a New Mood

The first teaser shows the young player in a yellow, Mimikyu-like hood taking part in card battles at night on a bridge above a river. That setting makes the familiar tabletop game feel secretive and cinematic, closer to an underground competition than a bright tournament hall. Mimikyu's ghostly presence deepens that atmosphere.

CloverWorks Deals the Animation

CloverWorks, the studio behind Spy x Family and My Dress-Up Darling, is handling animation. Katsuhiko Kitada directs, Akemi Hayashi designs the characters, and STORY inc. leads planning and production. That team gives the project a visual identity separate from the long-running television series while staying firmly within Japanese theatrical animation.

The First Pokémon Movie in Seven Years

Wild Card ends a long gap after 2020's Secrets of the Jungle and opens a part of Pokémon culture that the films have never centered before. The card game has its own competitors, rituals, and strategic drama, enough to support a story without retelling a familiar badge quest. The film is headed to theaters in 2027.