Pokémon: Wild Card Puts Mimikyu and the TCG on the Big Screen in 2027
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The Card Game Is Getting Its Own Movie
After seven years without a new animated Pokémon film, the drought is over, and the comeback pick is not Ash, not Pikachu, but the trading card game itself. Pokémon: Wild Card is a brand new animated feature arriving in 2027, and its two leads are a competitive TCG player and Mimikyu. For those of us who spend our weekends sleeving cards instead of catching them, this one feels like it was made for us.
Announced Live at Worlds
The reveal came during the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, complete with a short teaser. Pokémon Company president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara introduced it on stage, saying "For the first time in seven years, a new Pokémon movie is on its way." The teaser closes on a 2027 date card, with wording that suggests there is more planned beyond the film itself.
A Card Player, Not a Trainer
The official logline says the film "tells the exciting story of a Pokémon TCG player and his partner Mimikyu," with Ishihara describing the lead as someone striving to become a champion. That is a real break from the classic movie formula of trainers, legendaries, and world-ending crises. In the teaser, the player is dressed in a yellow hoodie styled after Mimikyu, which is a fun inversion all by itself. More on that in a second.
Why Mimikyu Is the Perfect Co-Star
Think about the casting here. Mimikyu is a tiny Ghost and Fairy type, just 0.2 meters tall under its rag, that hides beneath a homemade costume with a crayon-scribble Pikachu face. In the games' lore, it adopted that disguise because Pikachu merchandise had become wildly popular twenty years earlier, and it wanted that same love. A Pokémon that literally cosplays the franchise mascot to feel seen, now headlining the movie about the fans who collect the cards, and its human partner cosplays Mimikyu right back. Whoever pitched that pairing understood the assignment.
The Team Behind It
The production credits are stacked. Katsuhiko Kitada is directing, with character designs by Akemi Hayashi. Story Inc. is producing and CloverWorks is handling the animation. It is the franchise's first animated feature since Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, which opened in Japan in December 2020.
What We Know So Far
Quick reference for everything confirmed at this point:
Title: Pokémon: Wild Card
Release: 2027, worldwide, exact date not yet announced
Stars: A Pokémon TCG player and his partner Mimikyu
Director: Katsuhiko Kitada
Character design: Akemi Hayashi
Studio: CloverWorks, produced by Story Inc.
Announced: Closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships
A theatrical movie where the hero's journey runs through deck sleeves and tournament tables is the most flattering thing the franchise has ever said about this hobby.