Post Malone, Katy Perry and J Balvin are now the stars of their own Pokémon cards.
The new cards were revealed on the official Pokémon 25th anniversary website and features each of the three musicians redrawn as trainers with a popular Pokémon: Katy Perry is paired up with Pikachu, Post Malone gets a team of Dragonite and Butterfree, while J Balvin commands a Charizard. Each card has 180 HP and a card number based on each artists' birth date. The three artists contributed songs to the franchise's 25th Anniversary Album, which also featured tracks from Vince Staples, Lil Yachty, Mabel and more.
The Pokémon Company has yet to announce whether the other artists on the album will get Pokémon cards of their own, nor has it announced if these cards will ever be released into public circulation.
The new celebrity cards aren't the only way that the trading card game is celebrating Pokémon's big anniversary: the collectible card game recently launched its newest expansion, Celebrations, which features reprints of the series' most iconic cards from the past 25 years, including the original set's famously expensive Charizard, and the highly sought-after Birthday Pikachu.
Every other branch of the multi-billion dollar Pokémon franchise is also celebrating the series' big anniversary in their own ways: a new season of the Pokémon Journeys anime, which features Ash and Pikachu revisiting regions and friends from their past adventures, recently premiered on Netflix. Additionally, a new anime series based on the video games, Pokémon Evolutions, recently launched on the company's official YouTube channel. Evolutions retells key story moments from every generation in the game's main series.
Nintendo has also released multiple Pokémon video games throughout the year, including New Pokémon Snap, a sequel to the beloved Nintendo 64 photography game. The next games in the main series, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which are remakes of series' first entries on the original Nintendo DS, are scheduled to be released on Nov. 19. Those remakes will be followed up with the release of the all-new Pokémon Legends: Arceus in January, which fans are hoping will modernize the series with new battle mechanics, a different era and a brand new, seemingly open-world structure.
Universal Studios Japan also recently announced that Pokémon will be the next Nintendo franchise to be represented at the company's theme parks. Earlier this year, the company opened Super Nintendo World, which is mostly themed after the Super Mario games. Despite Japan being under COVID-19 lockdown restrictions for most of the year, the Nintendo-themed attractions appear to be success, as Universal Studios has already announced plans for a large expansion to the park, which will be themed after Donkey Kong Country.
Source: Pokémon 25th Anniversary Official Website
