You Star Penn Badgley Once Appeared in Pokemon TCG Training Video

gamerant.com:

Before becoming the main character of the Netflix hit series You, Penn Badgley starred in a Pokemon Trading Card Game training video that recently resurfaced on social media. Badgley was among the first actors to appear in Pokemon TCG training videos, long before he became popular playing Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl and the main protagonist of You.

The Pokemon TCG craze began in 1996 in Japan and came to the West in 1998 thanks to Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic: The Gathering. This strategy-based card game quickly conquered the playgrounds, with children swapping Pokemon cards between classes. Over two decades later, Pokemon TCG is as popular as ever, with social media personality Logan Paul wearing a $5 million Pokemon card during WrestleMania and some rare cards regularly going up for auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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TikTok user giostorm77 shared an extract showing young Penn Badgley in a 1999’s Pokemon TCG training video. The actor, who was only 13 then, teaches a class full of parents the art of playing Pokemon. While the young instructor tries to keep his attendees focused, the parents are only interested in trading Pokemon cards, asking for the best strategies, and bragging about their collection. After providing a few tips and tricks on the best Pokemon to collect, Badgley allows the parents to trade their cards, causing everyone to cheer gleefully.

In the comments to this video, many TikTok users noticed that despite being filmed over 23 years ago, the clip showed Penn Badgley with the same mannerisms he has as an adult playing professor Jonathan Moore in season 4 of Netflix’s series You. Badgley is