Ash Ketchum Officially Departing Pokemon
The Pokemon Company has announced that Ash Ketchum will be replaced as the main protagonist of Pokemon in 2023.
After 25 years, the iconic hero Ash Ketchum is finally saying goodbye to the long-running Pokemon anime series. On Friday, The Pokemon Company announced the hero would be making his final appearances in 11 episodes debuting in 2023. They also announced a new franchise series continuing the story of Pokemon with two new protagonists: Liko and Roy.
Just as Ash Ketchum’s name is different in the Japanese version of Pokemon (Satoshi), Liko and Roy’s names will likely be different in the English-language version of the upcoming series, though we don’t know them yet. The new series will take place in the Paldea region with Liko and Roy encountering starter Pokemon Fuecoco, Quaxly, and Sprigatito. They will also apparently cross paths with a Shiny Rayquaza.
The news of Ash Ketchum’s Pokemon departure comes not long after the hero finally achieved a long-sought-after goal. Last month we learned that Ash had finally–since his debut in 1997–won a World Championship in the Pokemon series. The scene in which Ash wins proved incredibly cathartic for long-time fans, who got to see tons of Pokemon, from Butterfree to Greninja.
As for the old guard making way for the new heroes, voice actress Sarah Natochenny took to Twitter after the announcement to pay tribute to the end of an era. Natochenny has been the voice for Ash Ketchum in the English language version Pokemon for 17 years. Among other things, which you can read below, Natochenny pledged to do whatever she could to “keep him present for all of us.”
Of course, Natochenny isn’t quite done with Ash Ketchum because the 11 Pokemon episodes premiering next year are still to come, but even then we doubt she’ll be hurting for work. Voicing Ash Ketchum helped open lots of doors for the actress, and there’s a good chance that even if you’ve never heard Ash’s English language voice you’ve heard Natochenny’s work. You can hear her in projects for Yu-Gi Oh!, the Dungeon Hunter series, The Jungle Book, and she was even the voice of the miniature Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men in last year’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
With or without Ash Ketchum, the Pokemon franchise doesn’t seem like it will be slowing down any time soon. Along with the upcoming series with new heroes Liko and Roy, the franchise is breaking records in the gaming arena. In spite of technical issues spoiling the release of Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet for a lot of fans, within the first three days of their release they became the highest-selling games or software on any Nintendo platform ever.
Of course, considering even in live-action projects like Star Trek: Picard and Deadpool 3 we see the return of actors to long-dormant roles, it’s always possible we could see Ash Ketchum somewhere down the road in a future Pokemon Project. Old Man Ash anyone?
