Last month it was announced that The Get Down’s Justice Smith has been cast in Legendary’s live-action Pokemon movie Detective Pikachu, and now THR is reporting that Big Little Lies star Kathryn Newton is set for the female lead.
Newton will play Lucy, “a sassy journalist who goes on an adventure with the boy, played by Smith, and Pikachu, who will be a motion-capture creation for the movie.” The actress reportedly won the role ahead of Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things), Haley Lu Richardson (Split) and Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why).
Detective Pikachu will be the first live-action movie for the hugely-popular Pokemon franchise. It is being directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps), with Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls) having penned the script. Filming is slated to get underway in London in January.