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The Second Pokémon Movie Is Almost Completely Different Pokémon Without Ash Ketchum
Summary
Takeshi Shudo originally wrote the script for the second Pokémon movie without Ash or Team Rocket. Shudo's desire to reinvent the series without Ash as the main character is evident in his blog posts. The original plan was to potentially have a new character replace Ash, leading to a different direction for the Pokémon movies.
The Pokémon The anime is just over a year into the post-Ash era, with the new Pokémon Horizons series featuring a completely different cast. However, if the Pokémon anime's head writer had his way, Ash would have been completed by the time of the second film, which fans now know as Pokémon the Movie 2000: The Power of One.
Takeshi Shudo was the head writer for the first five years of the Pokémon anime, as well as the writer for the first three Pokémon films. He shaped many elements that became canon for the anime, including the creation of the Team Rocket trilogy. It is well known that he was the driving force behind making the first Pokémon film, Mewtwo Strikes Back, such a dark event, and he also had equally controversial plans for later Pokémon storylines, which were ultimately not approved by The Pokémon Company.
One of those ideas appeared in an early draft of the second film, which originally did not feature Ash, Pikachu, or any familiar characters.
The Second Pokémon Movie Is Almost Completely Different
A scenario without Ash would be unrecognizable.
Anyone who saw Pokémon the Movie 2000 knows that Ash actually played a pretty big role in the plot, as the “chosen one” of the prophecy, making it difficult to imagine what the film would be like without him. In a blog post written by Takeshi Shudo in December 2009, translated and archived by Lava Cut Content, Shudo describes submitting his first draft for the second film. “I let the staff read the first quarter of the script—I wanted them to get a rough idea of the general outline,” Shudo said. “In the original script, there was no Ash and Team Rocket. The staff pointed this out to me — even though it was obvious I intended to write it that way — but I ended up revising the script to include all the characters that were seen from the first scene.”
It's interesting to note that even in the second film, there was some desire to go beyond Ash and tell other stories in the Pokémon world. Shudo didn't specify who or what the film might focus on, if not Ash, so the actual content of this first draft remains a big mystery. It seems that Shudo wrote the script without Ash knowing that he would be asked to include the current cast in the end, and that writing it this way was a ploy. Regarding rewriting the script with Ash's involvement, Shudo added, “I guess that reassured them, because then I could finish writing the last three-quarters of the script without anyone asking to see what I was writing.”
Originally, there was talk of Ash winning the Indigo League and retiring from the anime in favor of a new character for the second generation, so it's possible that the first draft was written with this idea in mind – that Ash would leave the anime anyway, and there was no need for a second movie starring him. However, Ash was so successful as a main character that they decided to keep him, and any hope of a movie without him was dashed.
Pokémon without Ash Ketchum
Shudo wants the series to reinvent itself without Ash.
Shudo certainly seems to be in favor of, if not ending the series, then at least switching to a new protagonist at some point. In another post translated by Lava Cut Content, Shudo said, “After 3 or 4 years, a new Pokémon adventure with a new main hero will begin.. With its own theme — this new Pokémon has to adapt to its era.” Shudo felt that a series that only followed Ash and was afraid of major changes to the formula would never be able to stay relevant, which he could say was true. While Ash would sometimes see changes in his design or personality between seasons, he was ultimately still Ash Ketchum.
With that in mind, it's also possible that Shudo hoped that this second movie could be the start of a new era, which is why he didn't include Ash and friends in his first draft. Perhaps it would even lead to a world where the Pokémon movies feature a variety of actors, while the anime focuses on Ash. It would certainly be interesting to see what Pokémon the Movie 2000 would be like without Ash, and how that would affect the future. Pokémon movies, knowing that they are no longer bound to seeing Ash as a hero.
