Some crossovers make perfect sense: peanut butter and jelly, socks and sandals, a suspiciously silent crewmate and an emergency meeting. Others are born from the beautiful chaos of fan art. In 2021, Reddit artist Ariejxd asked a question the world did not know it needed: what if Pokémon's Team Rocket—Jesse, James, and their talking cat Meowth—were crewmates in Among Us? The answer, as it turns out, is equal parts adorable, unsettling, and doomed to end with someone yelling, 'It was Meowth all along!'
Now, before anyone starts booting up a console expecting an official Pokémon / Among Us collaboration, let us be clear: this is fan art, not leaked DLC. The piece reimagines the infamous trio in Among Us's signature bean-shaped art style. Two crewmates sport Jesse and James's iconic hairstyles, while a third has Meowth's smug little face plastered on its visor. Are they wearing classic Team Rocket uniforms? Nope. The Jesse and James avatars are stuck in business suits, which honestly makes them look less like criminal masterminds and more like middle managers about to file a complaint with HR. Still, the resemblance is spot-on.
Viewers of the Pokémon anime will recognize Jesse, James, and Meowth as the lovable losers who spent 24 seasons chasing Ash Ketchum's Pikachu at the command of Giovanni, a crime boss who also somehow finds time to run a Gym. Their plans rarely work. Their motto is longer than most people's attention spans. And yet, they endure. In 1998, they even showed up in Pokémon Yellow as recurring bosses. Over the years, they have popped into Pokémon Go events, proving that nostalgia is a renewable resource.
Which brings us back to Among Us. The game is a social deduction nightmare where trust is a luxury and 'Where?' is a valid alibi. Team Rocket would be catastrophically bad at it—or would they? Let us break down their potential crewmate profiles:
| Crewmate | Pokémon Counterpart | Likely Role | Giveaway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crewmate with red hair | Jesse | Impostor, obviously | Starts every kill with a 20-second motto |
| Crewmate with blue hair | James | Innocent, but suspicious | Keeps calling emergency meetings to show off bottle caps |
| Crewmate with cat face | Meowth | Wild card | Speaks in full sentences, which is never not weird |
| Any crewmate near them | Pikachu, if included | Target | Team Rocket ignores tasks to chase it |
Would Team Rocket actually be Impostors? Maybe. But the funnier possibility is that they would be innocent crewmates who still manage to cause chaos. Imagine Jesse accusing everyone of being twerps. Imagine James accidentally venting because he thought it was a shortcut to the cafeteria. Imagine Meowth trying to bribe the lobby with Poké Dollars that do not exist in this universe. It is a beautiful disaster.
Among Us itself has never been a stranger to odd crossovers. In recent years, it has welcomed skins based on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart when the game hit PlayStation consoles. It also offered players a bizarre in-game mask of Geoff Keighley's face, originally a reward for viewers of The Game Awards 2020. If a gaming journalist's face can become a mask, why not a Pokémon criminal organization? The bar for crossover absurdity is already on the floor. Someone could trip over it.
Of course, as of 2026, no official Pokémon / Among Us crossover has happened. Nintendo and Innersloth remain separate kingdoms, and Team Rocket remains a fan-art fantasy. The Pokémon anime has moved on to new horizons—literally—while Among Us continues to update, mutate, and haunt friendship groups worldwide. But the dream refuses to die. Is that not exactly how Team Rocket operates? They never win, they never quit, and they always come back with a new scheme.
Maybe that is why Ariejxd's fan art still resonates. It captures something true about both franchises: the joy of watching a plan fall apart in spectacular fashion. Team Rocket would probably be terrible Impostors. They would announce their kills. They would forget to fake tasks. They would get ejected before the first sabotage. And yet, they would return for the next round, motto ready, Meowth smirking, convinced that this time—this time—they would finally catch Pikachu. Or at least win a round of Among Us.
So, Nintendo, if you are listening: the fans have done the hard part. They have designed the crewmates. They have written the jokes. All that is left is the official collaboration. What could possibly go wrong? Aside from everything, which is precisely the point. 🚀🐱