Ryan Reynolds at the Pokémon: Detective Pikachu premiere press conference in Beijing. Photo: Liu Shujia

Lei Jiayin poses for a picture. Photo: Liu Shujia

 

From left: Lei Jiayin, Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton and Ryan Reynolds pose for a picture with Pikachu. Photo: Liu Shujia

It was Ryan Reynolds' second visit to China in five months.

His first visit brought him promoting the talkative antihero/superhero Deadpool, and during his most recent visit, he promoted Detective Pikachu in the upcoming Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019) film . 

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is set to be released in theaters on May 10 and had its Beijing premiere ceremony on Sunday, which was three days before Avengers: Endgame (2019) debuts in theaters on Wednesday.   

Accompanying Reynolds, who is the voice of Detective Pikachu, were director Rob Letterman, actor Justice Smith and actress Kathryn Newton. Chinese actor Lei Jiayin, who is the voice of Detective Pikachu in the Chinese language version, also attended the ceremony.  

A lot of the Chinese audiences born in the late 1980s and 1990s got to know Pikachu through the Japanese animated TV series Pikachu (1999), however, Letterman said at the press conference on Sunday that the film is actually based on the video game Pokémon GO.

The film's story is set in a world where people and Pokémon live together, and a boy named Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) comes across Detective Pikachu, who was his father's former partner and offers help to look into his father's death.

"The movie covers a pretty universal theme [of] love and loss, evolution, [and] family. These elements are very important to me personally, but most importantly the movie was made by people who care and truly love the Pokémon universe," Reynolds said after the film's premiere.