A new Pokemon movie called Wild Card has been revealed at the Pokemon World Championships 2026 in San Francisco. The Pokemon series celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, as the first-ever games to be released were Pokemon Red and Green in 1996, exclusively in Japan, before being released as Pokemon Red and Blue in the rest of the world. With mobile titles like Pokemon GO and Pokemon Sleep, the upcoming Pokemon Winds and Waves for Switch 2, Pokemon Pokopia as a cozy spin-off, and Pokemon TCG for card collectors, the series has plenty to offer.
The closing ceremony for Pokemon’s 2026 World Championships on August 30 highlighted more of what’s to come to the series, such as a new Pokemon TCG mechanic tied to the Legendary Beasts Suicune, Raikou, and Entei, and new Pokemon Champions additions. Among these reveals was also a teaser trailer for a new project, which is the first movie in the Pokemon series since 2020’s Secrets of the Jungle, from the Pokemon Sword and Shield era, and it seems to be focusing on trading cards.
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Pokemon Wild Card Officially Revealed
Pokemon’s new Wild Card movie has been officially revealed for a 2027 release, and it features a Mimikyu, Pokemon TCG games, and a new unnamed protagonist. The protagonist is described as a Pokemon TCG player, is seen using Psychic-type cards, and is presumably the trainer of the Mimikyu in the trailer. Interestingly, the teaser trailer states that the new Pokemon movie comes out in “2027 and beyond,” which left some fans puzzled about what it might mean. Whether it’s the first movie of a series or there is a chance it might slip past 2027 and into 2028 for release, Wild Card finally brings the series back to the big screen after 25 Pokemon movies and years of hiatus.
Psychic cards in Pokemon TCG are an umbrella type for Psychic itself, Ghost-type Pokemon, and even Fairy-type Pokemon. While Fairy got its own type, it was later discontinued and merged with Psychic. This is interesting because Mimikyu is a Ghost/Fairy Pokemon, and it’s featured on the cards used by the mysterious protagonist, so the trainer might specialize in Ghost Pokemon. This is also the first-ever Pokemon movie dedicated to the existing Pokemon TCG game, and the series has very rarely shown trading cards overtly in the anime or movies.
The movie comes at a vulnerable moment for Pokemon TCG fans, though. The game has been plagued by scalpers for a long time, to the point that Nintendo released an official statement about Pokemon TCG scalping, product availability, and what the company intends to do to combat this practice. This was reportedly present at the World Championships this year, with some individuals abusing their Pokemon XP invitation to scalp cards and other products.
Scalping is such a big problem that the most liked comment under the new teaser trailer for Wild Card by user JimCxPranksz reads, “The villain is going to be a scalper,” and it currently has over 5,600 likes. The movie is unlikely to ever mention scalping, but it could be a good time to explore the origins of Mimikyu in Pokemon’s universe. Even if not, Mimikyu remains one of the most beloved Pokemon of all time, and the movie will most likely cement that.
