Pokémon Announces First New Anime Movie in 7 Years Ahead of 2027 Release
Pokémon is finally returning to feature-length animation after a seven-year break, with an entirely new movie confirmed to begin releasing worldwide in 2027.
Titled “Pokémon: Wild Card,” the film will take the franchise in a very different direction by making competitive Pokémon Trading Card Game play the central focus of its story.
Pokémon movies were once a regular part of the franchise, with 23 animated features released between Pokémon: The First Movie in 1998 and Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle in 2020.
Secrets of the Jungle later reached audiences outside Japan through Netflix in October 2021, but no new feature-length Pokémon movie has followed it until now.
Wild Card’s arrival also comes as the Pokémon TCG is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026 with new cards and a dedicated “30th Celebration” expansion.
That connection was made even stronger by the movie being revealed during the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, where some of the world’s best competitive TCG players had spent the weekend battling for championship titles.
The story of Wild Card is said to follow an aspiring Pokémon TCG player who is chasing the same kind of goal, with The Pokémon Company describing him as someone striving to become a champion alongside his partner Pokémon, Mimikyu.
That makes Wild Card the first Pokémon movie to put the Trading Card Game itself at the heart of the story, shifting the action away from the Pokémon battles traditionally associated with the animated films and into the competitive world of card play.
The first teaser gives an early look at that direction through a nighttime city setting, showing the young player seated at a table with cards in front of him while Mimikyu watches nearby from the railing of a bridge.
His yellow hood also closely resembles Mimikyu’s disguise, visually linking the pair before much has been revealed about exactly how their partnership will work within the movie.
The movie is also bringing in a very different animation team from the one longtime fans may associate with earlier Pokémon films, with CloverWorks handling animation production and STORY inc. overseeing planning and production.
CloverWorks has become one of Japan’s best-known modern animation studios through series including SPY x FAMILY and Bocchi the Rock!, giving Wild Card a creative team with plenty of experience producing visually ambitious anime.
Katsuhiko Kitada will direct the film after previously working on the direction of THE FIRST SLAM DUNK, while BANANA FISH character designer Akemi Hayashi is responsible for Wild Card’s character designs.
Pokémon: Wild Card is officially scheduled to begin its worldwide theatrical release in 2027, bringing Pokémon back to cinemas with its first new feature-length animated adventure in seven years and its first movie centered on the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
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