McDonald’s next rumored collaboration will thrill millennials

McDonald’s is reportedly bringing back a fan-favorite Happy Meal collector’s item.

According to reports from fan website PokéBeach, Pokémon cards will be returning to McDonald’s Happy Meals in the U.S. from November 5 to December 9, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the popular franchise.

The outlet reports that each Happy Meal order will come with a four-card booster pack, consisting of three normal cards and one holographic one. There will be 15 cards available to collect in total during the month.

In the past, the available cards have always been reprints, but the exact cards that will be featured have not been announced yet.

The Independent has reached out to McDonald’s and Pokémon about the report.

Millennials will be sure to celebrate news of the potential collaboration, with the cultural craze shaping childhoods starting in the late Nineties. Collecting Pokémon cards is popular around the world to this day, with the most popular cards selling for at least $1,000.

But ahead of the speculated collaboration, some fans shared their concerns about long lines and limited supplies.

“McDonald’s lines are about to be pure insanity again,” one person complained on X. Another wrote on the platform: “Oh boy. Here we go! Those drive-thrus are about to get long!”

“Not this again. people will just buy the happy meals for the cards and throw away the food,” one person wrote on a Reddit thread dedicated to Pokémon.

It follows McDonald’s Japan’s fiasco in August 2025, in which the fast food chain was forced to cancel a Happy Meal campaign in August 2025 after the coveted Pokémon cards ran out in a day and resellers discarded mass amounts of food waste.

The collaboration was set to last for three days, but was put to an end after one day due to the chaos over a special Pikachu card that was included in the collection.

“We do not believe in abandoning and discarding food,” the company said in a statement at the time. “This situation goes against our longtime philosophy that we have cherished as a restaurant to ‘offer a fun dining experience for children and families.’ We sincerely accept that our preparations had not been adequate.”

McDonald’s said it would find a way to prevent similar problems in the future, adding that it might deny service to scalpers who refused to abide by the restaurant’s rules.

“We vow to return to the basics of what lies behind the Happy Set, which is about helping to bring smiles to families so we can contribute to the wholesome development of the hearts and bodies of children, who are our future,” the company said.