The Pokémon Company has announced Pokémon: Wild Card, a new feature-length animated movie scheduled to begin releasing worldwide in 2027. Revealed during the closing ceremony of the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, the film will center on the Pokémon Trading Card Game rather than following the format of the franchise’s earlier theatrical adventures. It also marks the first new Pokémon feature-length animated movie announced in years.
Wild Card follows an aspiring Pokémon TCG player and his partner Mimikyu, the Ghost- and Fairy-type Pokémon known for hiding beneath a Pikachu-like disguise. The Pokémon Company says the story will focus on the player’s attempts to compete and become a champion, placing competitive card battles at the center of the film. A short teaser released alongside the announcement offers an early look at the protagonist and Mimikyu but leaves most of the wider plot unexplained.
The project is being produced by STORY inc., while CloverWorks is handling animation production. Katsuhiko Kitada will direct the movie, with Akemi Hayashi serving as character designer. CloverWorks has worked on a wide range of anime productions, and its involvement gives Wild Card a noticeably different production setup from many of the Pokémon movies released during the franchise’s earlier theatrical run.
The film is particularly unusual because the Pokémon Trading Card Game itself appears to be a core part of the fictional world rather than simply a real-world product connected to the franchise. Previous Pokémon movies typically followed trainers battling alongside living Pokémon in stories connected to the animated series or standalone versions of its characters. Wild Card instead appears to treat competitive card play as the protagonist’s primary pursuit, while Mimikyu remains directly involved in the story.
The announcement comes at a significant time for competitive Pokémon. The 2026 World Championships took place in San Francisco from August 28 to August 30 and featured competition across the Pokémon TCG, Pokémon Champions, Pokémon GO and Pokémon UNITE. Revealing a movie centered specifically on a TCG player at that event ties the project directly to the competitive community that has helped make the physical card game one of Pokémon’s largest businesses.
Pokémon: Wild Card will also end a lengthy gap between new animated Pokémon feature films. The previous movie, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, premiered theatrically in Japan in December 2020 before receiving an international release through Netflix in 2021. The Pokémon Company described Wild Card as its first movie release in years, making the 2027 launch a notable return to feature-length animation after the franchise spent much of the decade focusing on television projects, games and other media.
The teaser does not reveal whether established characters from other Pokémon anime projects will appear, and there has been no announcement of a connection to Ash Ketchum, Pokémon Horizons or earlier movie continuities. Voice cast information also remains unannounced. The current marketing instead presents Wild Card as an original story built around its TCG-playing protagonist and Mimikyu.
An exact release date has not yet been provided, with The Pokémon Company only confirming that the film’s worldwide rollout will begin in 2027. Its official Japanese website lists the same release window and confirms Kitada, Hayashi, CloverWorks and STORY inc. as the key creative team. Further story details, international distribution plans and additional characters are expected to be revealed closer to release.
