Pokémon is heading into a new visual territory, with Disney+ set to stream a stop-motion series featuring Sirfetch’d and Pichu from 2027.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney and The Pokémon Company International have reached a distribution deal covering both the upcoming series and the franchise’s first animated show, Pokémon the Series: The Beginning.
Titled Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu, the new series will also air on Disney XD. It follows the two Pokémon as they travel across the Galar Region, helping and protecting the Pokémon who live there.
The deal also gives Disney+ rights to Pokémon the Series: The Beginning, which introduced Ash, Pikachu and other foundational characters. The series is already streaming on Disney+ and began airing on Disney XD earlier this month.
Disney and The Pokémon Company announced the partnership on Friday at Pokémon XP, a fan convention in San Francisco.
Acclaimed British animation studio Aardman, known for Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, is producing the stop-motion series with The Pokémon Company. Tom Parkinson serves as director, Nat McKay as creative director for IP development and James Young as model-making creative lead.
“Pokémon has that rare ability to mean something to longtime fans while continuing to feel completely relevant to young audiences today,” said Ayo Davis, president of Disney Kids & Family.
She said the new series combines Aardman’s stop-motion style with a playful new approach to the Pokémon universe, giving audiences a fresh way to experience familiar characters.
Phil Rynda, Pokémon’s director of original animation, said the stories are filled with adventure and heroism and become even more exciting through the perspective of Pokémon and Aardman’s filmmaking.
“Audiences will be delighted getting to know the Sirfetch’d & Pichu, and wonderful cast of Pokémon, featured in this series,” he said.
Rynda added that Aardman has brought the Galar Region to life so vividly that audiences may feel as though they can “smell the air, touch the tree bark, and want to adventure alongside our series heroes.”
