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Pokémon: Wild Card Explained: What We Know About the 2027 Movie
Pokémon: Wild Card is a new feature length theatrical anime film planned for worldwide release in 2027, marking Pokémon’s first new movie in seven years. The film was revealed at the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, making its competitive TCG focus central to the announcement.
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Key takeaways
- Pokémon: Wild Card is a new feature length theatrical anime film planned for worldwide release in 2027, marking Pokémon’s first new movie in seven years.
- The film was revealed at the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, making its competitive TCG focus central to the announcement.
- Katsuhiko Kitada is directing, Akemi Hayashi is designing the characters, Story inc.
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openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: What is Pokémon: Wild Card, the Pokémon franchise’s first feature-length animated film in seven years, and what are its announced release pl. Article summary: *Pokémon: Wild Card* is a newly announced, theatrical feature-length anime film centered on a competitive Pokémon Trading Card Game player and the player’s partner Mimikyu. It was unveiled at the closing ceremony of the . Topic tags: general, general web, user generated. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks, charts with fa
Pokémon: Wild Card is a new feature-length anime movie planned for a worldwide theatrical release in 2027. The film is built around a competitive Pokémon Trading Card Game player and Mimikyu, rather than the franchise’s more familiar trainer-and-gym-journey setup. It was announced at the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco. 1
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The announcement is notable for two reasons: it brings Pokémon back to feature-film animation after a seven-year gap, and it gives the Trading Card Game a central role in the story. The available teaser and announcement reveal the film’s premise and creative leads, but leave many practical details—including the exact release date and the protagonist’s identity—unknown.
Pokémon: Wild Card release plans
The film is scheduled to begin its worldwide rollout in 2027. The teaser reportedly uses the wording “coming 2027 and beyond,” so the public announcement does not yet provide a specific day, month or regional release schedule. 1
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The movie was unveiled during the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from August 28 to 30. 39
42 That setting was a deliberate match for the film’s subject: the protagonist is described as a TCG player battling and striving to become a champion, like the competitors attending the event.
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Story and characters: a Pokémon TCG player and Mimikyu
The confirmed premise centers on a Pokémon Trading Card Game player pursuing championship success. Mimikyu is identified as the player’s partner Pokémon, and the teaser offers a brief look at both the card game and the mysterious protagonist. 5
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Beyond that setup, the story remains largely undisclosed. The protagonist’s name, supporting characters, setting, rival or antagonist have not been announced in the supplied film reports. The teaser also does not establish a complete plot synopsis, so more specific story theories remain speculation rather than confirmed information.
The focus on a card-game competitor gives Wild Card a different starting point from Pokémon films that foreground exploration, battling with a team and a traditional trainer journey. Here, the central ambition is to become a TCG champion, placing strategy, competition and the culture of organized play at the heart of the movie. 1
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Creative team and animation studio
The announced creative team includes several key names:
- Director: Katsuhiko Kitada
- Character designer: Akemi Hayashi
- Producer: Story inc.
- Animation studio: CloverWorks
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CloverWorks is the studio handling the film’s animation, while Kitada directs and Hayashi provides the character designs. The announcement does not yet include a voice cast or additional production credits. 9
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How Wild Card connects to Pokémon’s movie history
The Pokémon Company described Wild Card as the franchise’s first new Pokémon movie in seven years. Reports identify Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, released in 2020, as the previous feature-length animated film in this interval. 9
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That timing describes the gap between feature films; it does not establish that Wild Card is a sequel. Nothing in the announced premise or teaser confirms returning characters, shared story continuity or a direct connection to Secrets of the Jungle. For now, Wild Card should be treated as a newly introduced film project with its own TCG-centered premise.
Do not confuse Wild Card with Pokémon’s Aardman series
The movie announcement arrived during a broader period of Pokémon news, including a separate Disney+ distribution agreement. That deal covers Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu, a stop-motion series created with Aardman—not Pokémon: Wild Card. 4
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Pokémon Tales is planned for 2027, will debut on Disney XD and will stream exclusively on Disney+ worldwide. Its story follows Sirfetch’d and Pichu on a journey through the Galar region to help and protect Pokémon. 2
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The agreement also includes the classic series Pokémon the Series: The Beginning. 2
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46 In other words, the two 2027 projects have different formats and homes: Wild Card is a feature-length theatrical anime about a TCG player and Mimikyu, while Pokémon Tales is an Aardman stop-motion streaming and television series about Sirfetch’d and Pichu.
What remains unconfirmed
For now, the confirmed information about Pokémon: Wild Card is limited to:
- A worldwide release planned for 2027
- A feature-length animated format intended for theaters
- A protagonist who plays the Pokémon Trading Card Game and aims to become a champion
- Mimikyu as the protagonist’s partner Pokémon
- Katsuhiko Kitada as director
- Akemi Hayashi as character designer
- Story inc. as producer
- CloverWorks as the animation studio
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The exact release date, voice cast, protagonist’s name and fuller story details have not been announced in the available material. Until those details arrive, the clearest description is also the simplest: Pokémon: Wild Card is Pokémon’s next theatrical anime film, and its defining twist is that competitive card play—not a conventional gym journey—is driving the adventure.
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Pokémon: Wild Card is a new feature length theatrical anime film planned for worldwide release in 2027, marking Pokémon’s first new movie in seven years.
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Pokémon: Wild Card is a new feature length theatrical anime film planned for worldwide release in 2027, marking Pokémon’s first new movie in seven years. The film was revealed at the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, making its competitive TCG focus central to the announcement.
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Katsuhiko Kitada is directing, Akemi Hayashi is designing the characters, Story inc.
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