Speculation Why aren't the pokémon movies in the same continuity as the main anime anymore?

[Jiggykoopbob]

Volcanion and the mechanical marvel was the last time we got a 1 and a half hour movie that's in the same continuity as the main anime, after that we got films of an alternate timeline in which Ash never met his friends from the main anime (And probably almost all the pokémon he caught and met too). I think that's kinda stupid to be honest.

Has no one ever asked why this is the case?

My personal theory why they did it is maybe so that they can have more legendary and mythical pokémon show up in the main anime given that before this change that rarely ever happened. (Albeit i found the arc in which Meloetta followed Ash and co. around to be quite awesome.)

 

[The Mega Champion]

They wanted to do something different? Who knows. I don't think we'll ever really know why this was done.

I think, originally at least and I swear I read this somewhere but I don't remember where, the reason they did I Choose You was because it was the anniversary of the anime and series (20th possibly? Can't remember) and they felt that was special enough to do a 'reboot AU' movie and then it just kind of evolved from there to how they did the movies in general.

I'm more concerned about why there hasn't been a new Pokemon movie overall for quite a few years now honestly...

 

[Palamon]

I honestly don't know. Maybe they just wanted to do a separate series for them... but it's not like they're making Pokemon movies anymore anyway. There hasn't been a new one since 2020, and it's safe to assume we'll probably not get one again unless we get a new mythical Pokemon. Which, mythicals seem to be intended for.

I do think it's extremely weird that we didn't get any films that correlated with the Sun/Moon and Journeys anime, but in the Alola games, Ash didn't really travel that much, so I guess that makes sense. And, I guess they just didn't want to do a movie with Ash/Goh. Oh, well.