Unlike the Pokemon that inhabit it, the setting of Detective Pikachu notably takes a lot more inspiration from real-life towns and cities than it does the games or the anime. In an interview published by Gamespot, some of the staff who worked on the movie share some of the reasons why.

According to production designer Nigel Phelps, building a believable and realistic universe was one of the main reasons they avoided using in-game locations and visual styles for the movie. This was also one of the reasons they shot on-location as much as possible, so that audiences will feel a sense of familiarity and realism even as the more fantastical Pokemon walked around.

“It’s all very focused on being believable, that’s a very important characteristic to the film…So for the most part, we’ll be shooting in and around London … the streets and the exterior stuff is in and around the city of London and Shoreditch. It has to be familiar to everybody…”

“We’ve kind of shied away from [using landmarks and architecture from the games]. There are little clues with the street names, and stuff like that, there’s references to the Pokemon universe, without being specific to it. So we’ve shied away from the animation [because] the cartoons and stuff felt much too cartoon-y and unreal, and it was important to everyone making the film that this was a realistic universe.”

Detective Pikachu will hit theaters on May 10 2019.

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