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Pokémon just turned 30, and honestly, the celebrations feel less like a marketing checklist and more like the franchise throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. There’s a new Blu-ray collection, a theatrical movie on the way that ditches Ash entirely, a 22-minute song trying to name-check over a thousand Pokémon, and, somehow a Pikachu plush that’s been to the International Space Station.

Let’s start with the collection, since it’s the one that’ll actually dent your wallet. Amazon has an exclusive $399.99 box set containing all 24 theatrical Pokémon films from 1998 through 2020, that’s over 36 hours of movie-watching packed onto 16 discs. What makes it a bit ridiculous (in a good way) is the packaging: the discs fold out from a booklet tucked inside a nearly 12-inch-tall Poké Ball case. There’s also supposedly a hardcover art book thrown in, though details on that are still thin. Pre-orders are open now, but Amazon hasn’t nailed down a release date yet, so patience may be required.

As for what’s inside: everything from the original Pokémon: The First Movie and Pokémon: The Movie 2000 up through 2020’s Secrets of the Jungle is accounted for. It’s essentially the entire theatrical run in one box, which is either a dream or a storage nightmare depending on how much shelf space you have.

That last film, Secrets of the Jungle, turns out to mark the end of an era rather than just another entry. During the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, the franchise announced its next theatrical film, Pokémon: Wild Card, set for a 2027 release. And here’s the part that’s likely to raise eyebrows: this one isn’t about Ash, Pikachu, Liko, or Roy at all. Instead, the story follows a competitive Pokémon Trading Card Game player and his partner Mimikyu. CloverWorks is producing, with Katsuhiko Kitada directing, and it’s hard not to read this as an attempt to steer the anime somewhere genuinely new, whether longtime fans go along for the ride is another question.

The anniversary hasn’t stayed confined to screens, either. Musician Masayoshi Oishi dropped a 22-minute track called All-stars 1,025, apparently trying to reference every Pokémon revealed so far, hopping between musical styles as it goes. It’s an ambitious, slightly absurd undertaking, the kind of project that only makes sense as an anniversary stunt.

And then there’s the space angle, which might be my favorite detail in all of this: French astronaut Sophie Adenot brought a Pikachu plush dressed in an ESA uniform up to the International Space Station, timed ahead of World Space Week in October. There’s something genuinely charming about a mouse-shaped mascot from a 1996 video game ending up in orbit three decades later.

Between the enormous Blu-ray set, a movie that seems ready to reinvent the anime’s cast, an overstuffed anniversary song, and a plush toy in space, Pokémon’s 30th year is shaping up to be a lot more than a nostalgia lap.