Proposal: Proposal: What could the 20th Movie mean for the series?

As the title suggests, I proposal a heavy speculation fueled article that can bring up what the next movie means for the franchise. There's theories of alternate timelines, future game hints, and more. I think it be neat to explore these and offer thoughts onto what could happen. I think that with the way they designed this movie we could see it actually lead to other things in the franchise such as games or similar anime adaptations. Of course as the article would make note of, it could easily not mean anything and just be something really different.

However these big differences are why I think speculation should be had with this and the reason for so much speculation on it currently.

This would be a one time article, and maybe have a reflections one after the movie to see what could be added, and possibly another follow up in future if stuff does start getting affected by the movie.

nothing because it's a movie and usually they're not super canonically connected to the main series

Bobbylicious said:

nothing because it's a movie and usually they're not super canonically connected to the main series

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Eh debatable and there is nothing stopping it from being connected, especially after subtle hints in sun and moon.

Z25 said:

As the title suggests, I proposal a heavy speculation fueled article that can bring up what the next movie means for the franchise. There's theories of alternate timelines, future game hints, and more. I think it be neat to explore these and offer thoughts onto what could happen. I think that with the way they designed this movie we could see it actually lead to other things in the franchise such as games or similar anime adaptations. Of course as the article would make note of, it could easily not mean anything and just be something really different.

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Alternate timelines may make sense given there are the original events (and more!) being revisted here, plus Marshadow going here. However, future game hints...? You'd have to argue very well for sensible speculation there, given the anime/movie and game creators work very separately. The most overlap was with Yellow and then the inclusion of Ash-Greninja as a throwaway event bonus for playing the SM Demo. Hardly close to the anime or movies influencing future games, especially considering that FRLG made their own Sevii Islands instead of using the Orange Islands. In other words - I'm fine with the idea sans speculating on how this movie predicts future games.

bobandbill said:

Alternate timelines may make sense given there are the original events (and more!) being revisted here, plus Marshadow going here. However, future game hints...? You'd have to argue very well for sensible speculation there, given the anime/movie and game creators work very separately. The most overlap was with Yellow and then the inclusion of Ash-Greninja as a throwaway event bonus for playing the SM Demo. Hardly close to the anime or movies influencing future games, especially considering that FRLG made their own Sevii Islands instead of using the Orange Islands. In other words - I'm fine with the idea sans speculating on how this movie predicts future games.

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I think an alternate timeline makes a lot of sense. Especially since Sun and moon expanded that narrative. I'd say that the reason this movie is so interesting, is because Sun and Moon is filled with Gen 1 references. Which is really odd when you'd expect it to be Kalos due to their open plotlines people wanted filled. Yeah its the anniversary game essentially but still. The fact that Masuda (or whoever it is) asks you which you'd want to play and offers the choice of the original 4 games, I find interesting. Combined that with the Ash camo and I'd say they could correlate since the Ash we see has the original outfit as well. So the movie may play off of the games slightly ( hint for story wise) or the other way around.

I think its also worth noting that GF made Ash Greninja. Yes the anime department wanted help making greninja special, but I think the fact that GF correlated with them on that is pretty important. Again it could lead to nothing, but I wouldn't be surprised if it leads to a new Kanto game, future retelling movies, or even a change to the remake format since GF likes switching things up.

Z25 said:

I think an alternate timeline makes a lot of sense. Especially since Sun and moon expanded that narrative. I'd say that the reason this movie is so interesting, is because Sun and Moon is filled with Gen 1 references. Which is really odd when you'd expect it to be Kalos due to their open plotlines people wanted filled. Yeah its the anniversary game essentially but still. The fact that Masuda (or whoever it is) asks you which you'd want to play and offers the choice of the original 4 games, I find interesting. Combined that with the Ash camo and I'd say they could correlate since the Ash we see has the original outfit as well. So the movie may play off of the games slightly ( hint for story wise) or the other way around.

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Assuming you are referring to the Sun and Moon games (if the anime then idk about that), but XY had gen 1 references as well though, such as the use of the Kanto Starters (to the point of letting players pick one from a professor!), Santalune forest being a complete copy-paste of Viridian Forest, references to Gary Oak... What happened in SM is no more significant than XY, I feel.

I think its also worth noting that GF made Ash Greninja. Yes the anime department wanted help making greninja special, but I think the fact that GF correlated with them on that is pretty important. Again it could lead to nothing, but I wouldn't be surprised if it leads to a new Kanto game, future retelling movies, or even a change to the remake format since GF likes switching things up.

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I think it's pure marketing, is all - appealing to people watching the show to try out the demo for the next game, and little more. The Ash-Greninja unlocks nothing special in SM, after all.

Still standing by my original stance that I would not be easily convinced that the movie has anything to do with future games. Historically they have not impacted the games significantly since Yellow. Lately we've had Ash-Greninja and a reference to Alain, but... that's no different to say vague TR references in Pokemon XD, after all. The teams are separate so I can't say a few references about it is anywhere near conclusive. As said, speculating on different timelines in the anime-verse or the like is fine, but I strongly disagree with game speculation with this movie.