'Detective Pikachu' Featurette: Ryan Reynolds Abandoned His Daughters To Play The Pokemon

We're as surprised as anyone that Detective Pikachu actually looks like it could be a fun action adventure romp this summer. Some of that is likely thanks to Ryan Reynolds providing the voice of the investigative Pokémon who normally only says his own name. But it wasn't easy for the Deadpool star to go from being a mouthy, meta mercenary to playing a cute, little, yellow furball. In fact, as a new Detective Pikachu featurette reveals, Reynolds went so far as to disappear into the role, so much that he refused to pick up his daughters from school. That didn't sit too well with his wife Blake Lively.

In the "Becoming Pikachu" featurette, Ryan Reynolds talks about the great lengths he went to in order to play Pikachu. Reynolds was on the way to pick up his daughters from school when he found out that he got the role of Detective Pikachu. As soon as he had that role, he was in the mind of the Pokémon. Since Detective Pikachu doesn't have kids, Reynolds left his daughters without a ride. Of course, Reynolds hopes that his kids will see that it was all worth it when Detective Pikachu hits theaters this May. But it sounds like Blake Lively won't be there after all this nonsense.

This is a fun way to promote Detective Pikachu, and it's very much in line with Ryan Reynolds' sense of humor. The fact that this featurette is partially in black and white makes it feel perfectly pretentious, as many method acting experiences often turn out to be. If you need any evidence of that, just watch Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, a documentary on Netflix that shows how Jim Carrey became Andy Kaufman during the production of Man on the Moon. It's fascinating, but also perplexing and frustrating.

Anyway, Detective Pikachu looks like it could be a lot of fun this summer. If you haven't watched the trailer yet, be sure to check it out. You just might be surprised by how good it looks.

The story begins when ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry's former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.

Detective Pikachu arrives in theaters on May 10, 2019.