Ed Sheeran Becomes a Pokémon Trainer in the Music Video for "Celestial"

Ed Sheeran may be a four-time Grammy winner with four #1 albums to match, but if he had it his way he’d probably be a Pokémon trainer. No, seriously: Sheeran is an avowed Pokémon fan who has a super-sized collection of plush Pokémon toys and recently cut “Celestial,” the theme song for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. “Celestial” recently received an official music video, and in it, Sheeran gets to live out his Pokémon dreams.

The video shows a frequently-daydreaming Sheeran going about his day, while interacting with various doodled Pokémon, including Pikachu, Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Snorlax. Imagined or otherwise, these interactions enable him to come up with a song that he records, while a nearby TV shows him as a fully-animated Pokémon trainer who’s dropped into the middle of a fierce battle between Mew and Mewtwo, one of the oldest rivalries in the Pokémon universe. All the Pokémon shown in the video are from the first-generation set of 151, and towards the very end the singer-songwriter picks up a Game Boy Color for a nod back to Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue.

This isn’t Sheeran’s first official go-around with Pokémon either. Last year, he collaborated with Pokémon GO last year to put a handful of the songs from his album = in the game, and, as part of the collaboration, a special sunglasses-wearing version of Squirtle (Sheeran’s favorite Pokémon) was added to Pokémon GO as well.

Check out the music video in full above, and expect Pokémon Scarlet and Violet to release for the Nintendo Switch on November 18.

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