‘Pokémon: Wild Card’ Anime Proves Trading Card Games Are the Future

If you want a glimpse into what one of the world’s biggest media franchises thinks matters in the future, look no further than the proud announcement of Pokémon’s next film: Pokémon: Wild Card.

Unlike any Pokémon film before it, Wild Card will take a bold step in an entirely new direction: into the world of trading card games.

While an anime film about trading card games is new territory for Pokémon, TCGs themselves are anything but. Today, the Pokémon TCG is one of the largest – if not the very largest – trading card games in the world. It’s successful on multiple levels: among fans, investors, and players, and only seems to grow bigger and bigger.

And although the company has been pouring an incredible amount of time, energy, and money into their TCG, perhaps nothing shows the plans they have for it more than the announcement of this movie. If it wasn’t already clear to the mainstream: trading card games are here to stay. Not only that, they’ll play a big part in our future. Not just as a subculture, but perhaps even more.

Pokémon: Wild Card is about the TCG player’s journey

Up until now, Pokémon’s been largely about one thing: the trainer’s journey. I’ve seen every Pokémon film and they all have that one thing at their core: striving to be the very best Pokémon trainer.

Of course, that leads our heroes like Ash, Brock, and whoever else Ash is traveling with into a lot of exciting and sometimes dangerous situations. They battle strange Pokémon, overcome terrifying challenges, and even manage to catch a few powerful Pokémon.

The closest thing you can get to experiencing these films is probably just playing the Pokémon Video Games. They have a similar sense of adventure and grandeur to them.

But the Pokémon Trainer’s journey is markedly different than the journey of a TCG player. Indeed, there’s a more grassroots, streets-vibe to the journey of a trading card game player. Up until now, what it really looks like to be a TCG player has been largely overlooked.

Unlike films like The Greatest Game Ever Played, or TV series like The Queen’s Gambit that have shed light on the lives of those involved in specific competitive enterprises, nothing of the sort has ever been made under the mainstream light about the competitive trading card game experience. And in this, perhaps, lies Pokémon’s greatest master stroke.

What is the life of a competitive trading card game player actually like?

Mimikyu is heavily featured in the opening part of the teaser trailer. However, we don’t know if a literal Mimikyu will be present in the film, or if this is just the Pokémon that the main character identifies with.

After all, we see the main character wearing Mimikyu clothes, and playing a Mimikyu card.

And the president of the Pokémon Company himself confirmed that the film will be about a Pokémon TCG player battling and striving to become a champion.

So depending on how things go with this film, it could be more of a sports anime than a classic Pokémon film. And despite what you might think, the journey of a TCG player is easily something that could be pretty exciting.

Although I’ve not grinded to Worlds in the Pokémon TCG, I did get my own first-hand experience going the distance with a competitive TCG just this year, when I topped a 300-player tournament in Las Vegas and secured my spot in the invite-only UNION ARENA National Championship (the highest level of competitive play for that specific TCG).

The journey from local kid competing at a card shop to championship-level contention is an exhilarating one, filled with ups and downs, challenges, moments of self doubt, and triumph.

The Pokémon: Wild Card film that I want to see portrays this streets-to-championship journey faithfully, while sprinkling in that one-of-a-kind Pokémon magic.

Pokémon: Wild Card is the first Pokémon film to release in seven years

The last Pokémon film released was way back in 2020 and that was Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle. The last Pokémon film to release theatrically was the phenomenal Power of Us movie. Both of these take place in an alternate timeline kicked off by I Choose You. Pikachu and Ash are still at the center of the film, but they’re with new friends and face new challenges.

But all three of those films were still classic Pokémon films: albeit with a twist.

You can’t look at even just the short teaser trailer for Wild Card and mistake it for something in the same vein. While it has an edgier, darker, street-savvy vibe more akin to Detective Pikachu, this isn’t a Pokémon and his partner the way we think of it. It’s about a Pokémon TCG player and his favorite Pokémon in deck form.

Pokémon is bringing mainstream attention to what perhaps is increasingly becoming their biggest prize: their Trading Card Game. While we don’t know exact numbers, given the insane demand for the Pokémon TCG since the pandemic, it’s likely that the company is recognizing the vital role the TCG will play in the future.

And assuming we get a theatrical release for this film, it could do more than just make them money as a standalone entry – it could act as powerful marketing for the entire competitive TCG apparatus.

2027 is a huge year for anime films

While the last few Pokémon films didn’t see massive releases, the world they were brought into looked a bit different than the one we are in today. That is, specifically for anime. Now, anime is quickly becoming one of the more bankable genres not only for streaming but at the box office.

Just last year, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle smashed anime box office records, becoming not just the top grossing anime film of the year, but one of the top grossing films of all 2025.

An industry shift as monumental as this doesn’t go unnoticed. And the Pokémon Company is releasing a film into a world eager to capitalize on anime’s power in theaters. Massive anime like Solo Leveling will be getting a theatrical release in 2027, as will Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Part 2.

It’s the perfect storm that could not only see Pokémon making a ton of money from their film: it could do a lot for making trading card games as a sport mainstream.

Of course, all of this is dependent on how successfully Pokémon pulls this movie off. I’m a huge fan of many of their films, but given this is a whole new beast I’m sure it presents its own unique challenges. Still, I’m not sure if everyone realizes how big a movie like this can be.

At the end of the day, it’s not just about Pokémon capitalizing on one of their fastest growing products. It’s about what Pokémon: Wild Card means for the trading card game industry as a whole.