Jonathan Krisel, the co-creator of the IFC series Portlandia, is in talks to direct the Pokémon Detective Pikachu sequel for Legendary Entertainment, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The 2019 original, directed by Rob Letterman, followed voice star Ryan Reynolds in the title role, with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom‘s Justice Smith co-starring as a young man named Tim who has given up on his dreams of becoming a Pokémon trainer. When his detective father goes missing, Tim meets Detective Pikachu and immediately has a special connection to the Pokémon, being the only person who can understand him. Together, the duo team up to solve the mystery of Tim’s missing father.
The original film was barely in theaters before Legendary began work on a sequel to its Pokémon-based movie, with Oren Uziel to pen the script. Now Chris Galletta is understood to be writing the screenplay for the sequel.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu made roughly $450 million at the global box office.
In addition to his work on Portlandia, Krisel also co-created the Zach Galifianakis FX series Baskets and has written and directed episodes of Comedy Central’s Kroll Show and FXX’s Man Seeking Woman.
Krisel is repped by UTA.
