Ryan Reynolds pranks fans by sharing fake 'full movie link' of upcoming live-action film Detective Pikachu

In a first, the team of Detective Pikachu created its own “leak” copy of the film and Ryan Reynolds , the voice of the beloved Pokemon, brought it to Warner Bros attention on social media in his signature wry humour. A day ahead of the theatrical release of the film, the 1 hour 42 minute-long supposedly ‘pirated’ footage found its way to the internet with an ‘R Reynolds’ watermark placed quite conspicuously in the clip. The video, titled ‘Pokemon Detective Pikachu: Full Picture’, was shared from a Twitter account called Inspector Pikachu.

Um.... Attn @DetPikachuMovie @warnerbros https://t.co/UF7qYtKOYV

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) May 7, 2019

Reynolds retweeted the post to his 1.3 million followers and “informed” the studio and official Twitter account of the movie about the supposed “leak”. The YouTube video includes 60 seconds of what looks like the actual opening sequence of Detective Pikachu — followed by 102 minutes of Pikachu aerobicizing on a dance floor. The full movie link racked up 4 million views in 14 hours. In previous promo videos, Reynolds shared an ‘Inside the Actors Studio’, video where he shared the lengths he went through to get into character for Detective Pikachu. With a completely straight face, he described his absurd method-acting process   — from abandoning his children to living at Pikachu’s height. The Warner Bros live-action Detective Pikachu is slated to release on 10 May. Directed by Rob Letterman, the film also stars Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) and Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies). (With inputs from Press Trust of India)