In an interview with Syfywire, Detective Pikachu writers Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez explained how Psyduck of all Pokemon became one of the film’s most important characters.

According to Samit and Hernandez, they had already decided to give Psyduck an important role in the film even in the first drafts of the script. This was in spite of the fact that Psyduck had no such importance as a character in the original Detective Pikachu game. As for why, it was simply because Psyduck was one of their favorite Pokemon, one that they felt an odd affinity with due to the Pokemon’s neurotic nature.

Samit: “From day one of working on the movie, one of our very first pitches to the producers was hey, we think Psyduck should be in it, even though we know that character does not exist in the [Detective Pikachu] game. From the very beginning, having Psyduck as the number two Pokémon after Pikachu, that was put in just because he’s our favorite and has always been our favorite.”

Hernandez: “Because I’m a neurotic writer, I really relate to getting stressed and more stressed and more stressed and then just exploding, and for that reason, I’ve always felt a great kinship to Psyduck, so we thought that was really important to get him in there.

Apart from Psyduck, there were a number of other Pokemon that didn’t quite make the cut for the final movie. Among these cut cameos were Smeargle, Meowth, and the infamous Garbodor.

Hernandez: “There were some fun urban ones like Garbodor, we had Smeargle doing graffiti art at one point, just kind of in the background. Meowth was one that that would have been a lot of fun but just didn’t quite work out. But a Garbodor was the one I really wanted because I felt like that made the most sense, with the garbage collection.”

Detective Pikachu is now showing in theaters worldwide.

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