The first teaser trailer and official poster for Pokémon: Wild Card arrived during the closing stretch of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, confirming a worldwide theatrical rollout in 2027. The announcement marks the first Pokémon theatrical film in seven years and frames the new feature as an original animated story centered on cards, competition, and a ghostly partner rather than the usual gym-circuit adventure. Together, the brief preview and key art establish the tone of a night-city card duel instead of a sunny regional quest.
After three decades as a global force in games, cards, and animation, the Pokémon franchise is heading back to cinemas with Pokémon: Wild Card, slated for a worldwide bow in 2027. Organizers unveiled the project at the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, pairing the news with a compact preview that introduces its leads. The short clip sketches a story built around a trading card game player and the ghost-type partner Mimikyu, signaling a shift toward the competitive table rather than a journey across a region.
Watch the teaser trailer below:
The enigmatic preview lingers on that player, whose yellow hooded outfit echoes Mimikyu’s makeshift costume down to the jagged silhouette. Mimikyu itself, a Ghost- and Fairy-type creature that first appeared in Sun and Moon, the seventh-generation Pokémon games, is known for its clumsy attempt to pass as Pikachu, the series mascot. Beneath the tattered yellow cloth it wears, the Pokémon’s real body stays concealed, a detail the teaser treats as both costume and character.
The accompanying poster sets the same pair against a nocturnal city. Mimikyu balances on a stone railing above a canal, one cloth-wrapped arm raised in a streak of pale energy, while the hooded player sits on the wooden planks below with a spread of cards and a playmat at his knees. Neon signs smear across the water behind them, the Pokémon: Wild Card logo cuts across the night sky in jagged yellow, and the art stamps 2027 and Beyond in the corner beside production credits. Headphones rest over the player’s hood as he places a card onto the mat, tying the image directly to the trading card game that the film intends to put on the big screen.
Direction falls to Katsuhiko Kitada, whose credits include work on The First Slam Dunk, Attack on Titan, and Naruto: Shippuden. Akemi Hayashi, known for Banana Fish and Lazarus, is designing the characters. Animation production is assigned to CloverWorks, the studio behind Spy x Family and Bocchi the Rock, with Story inc. listed on the key art as a producing partner.
Pokémon: Wild Card follows a long gap after Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, which opened in Japanese theaters in 2020 and reached a worldwide audience on Netflix in 2021. The last Pokémon title to play in theaters around the world was 2018’s Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us, which Fathom Events booked for a limited run outside Japan. The new film arrives as the franchise also prepares Winds and Waves, the tenth-generation games, after celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026.
