We have an interesting rumor going around about Pokémon and Netflix.
As shared on the GamingLeaksandRumours subreddit by user IcePopsicleDragon, the live action Pokémon show in development at Netflix in 2021 is still in the works. However, it has now emerged that the plan is not to have the show feature longtime protagonist Ash Ketchum, but to base it on the original trainer, Red.
Now, this may be a little confusing to some fans. What do you mean the kid with the baseball cap in the Pokémon video game isn’t Ash Ketchum? To put it simply, Red was clearly the inspiration for Ash, in the same way that Red’s rival, Blue, was the inspiration for Ash’s rival, Gary Oak. These characters were conceived of in the 1997 adaptation of Pokémon from video game to anime, an anime that somehow ended up running for 25 years.
It certainly doesn’t help that The Pokémon Company has never come out to officially declare that they are different characters, but one way of looking at this is that the Pokémon anime is a loose adaptation, that went in its own direction. Indeed, as the anime kept going, and needed to be filled out with new stories for Ash and his friends, the show kept veering away from the video games, even as they kept updating the show with characters and settings that came from the latest games. CBR even has a listicle that shows just how different Ash and Red are.
In any case, when it comes to the new live action show, it sounds like Netflix and The Pokémon Company want to make a fresh start, and the ironic way they will go about it, is by making another adaptation of the original Pokémon games, which might be more accurate to the story of those games. So Red may not necessarily be running buddies with Misty and Brock, though he will likely meet them as their proper roles in the video games, as Gym Leaders.
But then, when it comes to the world of adaptations, it’s often more important to make changes that will make the show or movie better, than it is to be faithful to the last letter. So maybe we won’t be seeing twelve episodes of Red just roaming around the tall grass because his Squirtle isn’t strong enough to do more. Netflix does have a messy record with their adaptations, but it seems that their take on One Piece has at least signaled they can get it right, sometimes. So we’ll see if they can get it together for this one too.
