McDonald's restaurants have been collaborating with Pokemon since the first game in the franchise, with many toys and special items available each time. Recently, and very subtly, McDonald's in has announced it will be bringing Pokemon back to Happy Meals in the coming months, but there's a catch: as of now, Pokemon is only coming back to McDonald's restaurants in the UK.
McDonald's and the Pokemon franchise have done many collaborations before with the most recent one coming in 2021. For Pokemon's 25th anniversary, the franchise collaborated with McDonald's Happy Meals where special edition Pokemon trading cards and a special item were included in these Happy Meals.
MocDonald's in the UK has recently begun its latest Happy Meal theme with Paddington Bear. Printed on the Happy Meal box, a reader for VGC spotted a tab with a small image of Pikachu saying that Pokemon is "coming soon to Happy Meal." The last time McDonald's had Pokemon cards and items involved in Happy Meals, it had to implement restrictions due to scalpers that were mass-buying Happy meals for the cards and toys, but discarding the food. Nothing else has been confirmed about what this year's Pokemon collaboration will involve, but it will be available on August 3rd.
Pokemon and McDonald's seem to work well together since both franchises are well known and very popular. McDonald's restaurants in places like Hong Kong and Japan especially have had fun and creative ways to bring Pokemon fans into their restaurants.
With Pokemon Scarlet and Violet being a possibility for this collaboration, McDonald's will likely be more cautious after its experience with the 25th Anniversary collaboration and impose restrictions to avoid scalpers and food waste. Depending on the content of this collaboration, it could be easier for McDonald's to avoid this situation, but sometimes it's unavoidable with Pokemon being as popular as it has become over the decades.
Pokemon has had a busy year so far, with the announcement and subsequent fan speculation about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. McDonald's bringing the Pokemon franchise back to Happy Meals will be a welcome collaboration for new and old fans alike. Pokemon fans are already excited for the new games, as well as future games. Meanwhile, Ash Ketchum will be returning to Pokemon games in the future as part of Pokemon Masters EX, according to recent leaks.
Source: VGC