Who Voices Mewtwo In Detective Pikachu?

Pokémon Detective Pikachu was the fun live-action Pokémon adventure movie that fans had yearned for. There were plenty of changes from the original Pokémon world, and it was complete with surprise creature cameos from across the franchise’s multi-platform history. Perhaps most notable amongst the various inclusions was the legendary Mewtwo, who has been a franchise stalwart since the earliest days of Pokémon. Within the world of Detective Pikachu however, who is it that lends their talented voice acting skills to the psychic powerhouse?

Since making its first appearance in the very first entries into the video game series, Mewtwo has become a staple of the Pokémon franchise and a pop culture icon that is familiar to fans all over the world. Born from a pregnant Mew that had its embryo genetically tampered with, Mewtwo was bred to be the ultimate fighting Pokémon and is said to have the most savage heart among all Pokémon. Various iterations of the all-powerful legendary Pokémon have shown it to be caring, protective, and even altruistic. The version of Mewtwo in Detective Pikachu shares some of these traits, including a benevolence towards Harry Goodman (Ryan Reynolds) and his son Tim (Justice Smith), as well as a deep mistrust of humans.

One of the other major departures from Mewtwo’s previous appearances is that Detective Pikachu‘s version of the character is voiced by not one, but two individuals. Using fusion technology, Mewtwo is brought to life by both a male and female voice actor, despite the character being unanimously referred to using male-centric gender pronouns throughout the film. Throughout the video games and anime appearances in Mewtwo’s decorated history, the character has always been referred to as neither male nor female, so perhaps the combination of the two voice actors is the best way to showcase that, even despite the narrative presenting the character as male. If there is a potential sequel for Detective Pikachu, then there is the chance we could see something familiar for Mew.

The role of bringing Mewtwo to life for Japanese audiences fell to Kōichi Yamadera and Sayaka Kinoshita, whilst the English-speaking Mewtwo was given a voice by Rina Hoshino and Kotaro Watanabe. Yamadera is something of a Pokémon voice acting legend, having performed as a main or supporting role in every one of the Pokémon movies thus far, while Kinoshita did not join the Pokémon franchise until the Sun and Moon entries. Both Hoshino and Watanabe had not previously worked in the Pokémon franchise until their voice acting credit on Mewtwo in Detective Pikachu, but both have brought something different to the role that has made this iteration of the legendary Pokémon stand out among the others.

Mewtwo was one of only a plethora of Pokémon to make an appearance in Detective Pikachu, and with a sequel seeming likely after the film’s box office success, there is a chance that both voice actors for the character could well return. Though any potential sequel would surely have to handle the seemingly tricky return of Ryan Reynolds as the caffeine-addicted Pikachu, it would allow for Mewtwo to continue its prolificity in appearing in Pokémon outings across various media forms. For now, the fusion technology employed in Detective Pikachu has brought fans one of the most memorable and intriguing iterations of the character to date, thanks to the hard work of Rina Hoshino and Kotaro Watanabe.

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Michael Pusey
(22 Articles Published)

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Michael has been writing online since early 2015, but his love of writing and film goes a lot further back than that. He craves glorious purpose but will settle for watching The Lord of the Rings for the 1000th time instead.

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