RJ Palmer, a concept artist who worked on
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, recently released some new designs and revealed that Arcanine originally had a much larger role in the live-action
Pokémon film.
According to Palmer's recent tweet (via
Gamefragger), in early versions of
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, Arcanine would've been Tim Goodman's Pokémon partner. This hints at a totally different version of Tim as well seeing as the character began
Detective Pikachu turning down the opportunity to adopt a
Pokémon.
Arcanine was originally going to be a much bigger part of Detective Pikachu. So this stuff is from very early on my work for the film. It was going to be Tim's Pokemon so I gave it the tongue sticky out thing my doofus cat does. What's not to love, its a horse sized liger-dog.
In the final product, Aracanine only shows up in the background of shots. This is therefore starkly different to the original plans. What do you think of this alternate version of
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu?
Check out the concept art below: