Speaking to IGN, the movie’s producer Ali Mendes seemed like he was open to the idea of creating a Pokemon Cinematic Universe, similar to what Marvel and DC are doing with their own cinematic universes in which multiple movies are made but are still linked to each other in some shape or form.
According to Mendes, “[Pokemon is] such a rich universe. There are so many ways you can go inside of it. We’re trying to get the first movie right, and then once we’ve done that, we’ll see where we go from there, but absolutely. There are a lot of opportunities.” This is by no means a confirmation, but it’s not surprising that this is something that they have considered.
Disney/Marvel has proven that its MCU has the potential to make billions upon billions of dollars, and with the Pokemon franchise already so popular and with tons of characters, why not take advantage of it, right? In the meantime Detective Pikachu’s sequel has already been greenlit.