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Pokémon Go's July Community Day has heard you like Mudkips

As leak points to major new Team Rocket questline.

Pokémon Go's next Community Day event will feature the meme-worthy Mudkip, best known for its appearance on various internet sites.

In the live-action trailer below you can see a couple of Mudkip chattering away to each other just as they did in that Pokémon anime episode which got turned into countless YouTube videos.

July's Community Day will take place at the later-than-normal time of 4-7pm wherever you are in the world, on Sunday 21st July. (Niantic has shifted the usual hours back to avoid the heat of the day over the summer months.)

Watch on YouTube

But there's clearly something bigger on the horizon. After Team Rocket popped up in AR photos last week at Chicago Go Fest, Pokémon's legendary team of villains appear ready to make their proper debut in Pokémon Go.

Achievements found in the game's files point to new encounters battling Team Rocket grunts which have invaded your game. You'll also be tasked with "purifying" Shadow Pokémon, an artificial way to control Pokémon introduced in spin-off games Colosseum and Gale of Darkness (and, more recently, Shadow Mewtwo popped up in Pokkén Tournament).

21 Pokémon have been found with Shadow variations in Pokémon Go's files - including the aforementioned Mudkips. Could we see a surprise release at the end of Community Day, just as Meltan popped up as a surprise last year?