Will Pokemon: Wild Card Release With a Promo Card?

Pokemon: Wild Card centers on an as yet unnamed Pokemon TCG player working toward becoming a Champion, with Mimikyu as his partner. It’s a genuine departure for the franchise. Every prior animated Pokemon movie has featured Ash in some form, and this is the first mainline theatrical release built entirely around a trading card player instead of a traveling trainer.

The Pokemon Company’s press materials describe it as the story of what happens “when the time comes to put their cards on the table,” which tracks given the card game is the actual subject this time, not just merchandise built around a cartoon.

The studio behind the animation is CloverWorks, best known for Spy x Family, My Dress-Up Darling, and Bocchi the Rock, which is a notable step up in pedigree for a Pokemon film. The announcement also lands just days after Pokemon confirmed a global streaming deal with Disney+, including an Aardman stop-motion series debuting in 2027. Between the Disney+ deal, a new World Championships location announced for Singapore in 2027, and now Wild Card, Pokemon is clearly building toward a packed 2027 across film, streaming, and competitive play.

This is the first animated Pokemon movie since 2020, and the first one to spin off from the animated series with an entirely new premise and cast. It’s a pretty clear acknowledgment from the Pokemon Company that the TCG has become the more culturally dominant half of the brand over the last several years.

The 2000 theatrical release of the first Pokemon movie came with Ancient Mew, a promo card handed out at screenings that became one of the most recognizable pieces of Pokemon TCG history. Ungraded copies currently sell for around $130 on the secondary market, and graded copies climb fast from there, with PSA 8s landing around $160, PSA 9s around $250, and true PSA 10 gem mints selling well into the thousands.

If Wild Card follows that playbook, whether it’s a single Pokemon Company card or something distributed through individual theater chains, the lesson from Ancient Mew is that early theatrical promos tend to be short print runs tied to opening showings.

That makes securing early tickets the actual play for anyone hoping to land one, not chasing eBay listings after the fact. For now, there’s nothing to buy and nothing to flip. This one is purely a watch and wait situation until Pokemon says more.