A sequel to Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is in the early stages of development at Legendary as the studio is looking to move forward with a cinematic world for the Pokémon franchise. As the production of Detective Pikachu progressed, The Pokémon Company became more open to the idea of trademark props and characters being used in cinematic fashion, prompting ideas for a larger world to unfold on the big screen. A release date for the Detective Pikachu sequel has not yet been revealed.

Legendary did not respond to ComicBook.com's request for comment. Multiple sources involved with the production informed ComicBook.com that the studio is moving forward with the Pokémon: Detective Pikachu sequel before ultimately expanding into a more diverse world of Pokémon movies.

Detective Pikachu was a critical and box office success in its opening weekend, though the unprecedented success of Avengers: Endgame may have taken a bit of wind out of the Pokémon movie's sails. Pikachu's first outing, starring Ryan Reynolds as the titular Pokémon and Justice Smith as the human counterpart, hauled in $54 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend. To date, it has topped $175 million worldwide. The number might be a bit lower than anticipated as a result of Avengers: Endgame's consecutive record-breaking weekends using up many moviegoers' cinematic outings for the year.

"It's its own new world, but it's tied into the other regions," Detective Pikachu director Rob Letterman told ComicBook.com at the film's New York premiere. "So, it connects into the rest of the Pokémon universe."

Fans who have seen Pokémon: Detective Pikachu know there are plenty of seeds planted for world building going forward, while telling its own self-contained story in a standalone narrative. "The future I don't know, we concentrated on this, but we've worked very hard to," Letterman said. "Detective Pikachu's a video game that was in development, sort of in parallel with the movie, and the human story was so great, it made a lot of sense to make a live action movie about it. Then, we really tried hard to tie it and connect it into the overall Pokémon universe. There are countless Easter eggs in the film that, for hardcore fans, they'll see the links to, you know, all the different Pokémon canon that is out there, starting with literally the first two shots of the film pay tribute to my favorite Pokémon movie that I saw with my kids."

What do you want to see in a Pokémon: Detective Pikachu sequel or the overall expanding Pokémon movie universe? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram and Twitter.

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is now playing in theaters.