‘The Legend Of Zelda’ movie: Everything we know so far
Once upon a time, movie adaptations of video games were seen as barrel-scraping efforts to gain widespread interest. In the early 2000s, films like Doom, Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead were farted out by Hollywood with little care for the quality of the final movie, yet in the 21st century things have changed, with Nintendo leading the charge thanks to the worldwide success of The Super Mario Bros Movie in 2023.
Making over $1.3billion at the box office, once Mario leapt to global success, Hollywood jolted to attention, and now video games have become the greatest source of inspiration in ‘Tinseltown’. These projects range from the utterly absurd, with a movie based on the greedy yellow blob Pac-Man in the works, to the entirely credible, with Nintendo recently announcing that the absorbing world of The Legend of Zelda will soon be coming to the silver screen.
As one of the most beloved and iconic video game franchises of all time, it should come as little surprise that the movie adaptation has been in the works for several years. Avi Arad, the Chairman of Arad Productions, who is producing the film along with Shigeru Miyamoto, a Fellow of Nintendo, is thought to be the driving force behind the new movie.
Delving into what this movie will explore and look like when it’s eventually released, take a look at all you need to know about the new Legend of Zelda film below.
Everything we know about The Legend Of Zelda movie:
What is The Legend of Zelda?
First released in 1986, The Legend of Zelda has steadily become one of Nintendo’s most critically and commercially successful products. With 29 games to its name (including ports, remakes and collections), the most recent instalment in the action-adventure series was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in 2023, a game that helped the franchise sell nearly 200million units sold since its inception in the late 1980s.
Created by Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, despite the name of the game, the story focuses on the character of Link, a courageous young elf-like character who is constantly tasked with saving the magical kingdom of Hyrule from the grasp of the demonic king Ganon. A game that festers with wild fantasy concepts, each instalment sees the character team up with the mysterious Princess Zelda to fight evil and explore the diverse landscapes of the game.
Alongside its fairytale aesthetic and surprisingly dense lore, the games are largely beloved due to their focus on exploration, where Link interacts with different races of bizarre characters on his journey. Whilst Link, Zelda and Ganon remain key fixtures of most of the games, they are often joined by other eccentric beings such as the giant Goron who resides in the mountains, the sea-dwelling Zora and the tree-hugging Kokiri.
Will there be a Zelda movie?
On November 8th, 2023, Sony and Nintendo confirmed that a live-action Legend of Zelda movie was in the works. Despite long-standing rumours that an upcoming movie might be animated, especially considering Sony’s success with the animated Spider-Verse franchise, this has now been rebutted, with the production going ahead in a live-action format, although it’s unclear as of now if motion-capture technologies will be used.
Wes Ball, the director behind the Maze Runner trilogy as well as the forthcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes movie, will helm the Nintendo adaptation. Crucially, Ball also has great experience working with special effects, having worked on countless short films, as well as the 2010 drama Beginners and 2014’s #Stuck. As well as sitting in the director’s chair, Ball will be producing the new movie with Joe Hartwick under their Oddball Entertainment company.
Elsewhere, it has also been confirmed that Derek Connolly will be penning the script for the new film. With a diverse repertoire to his name, fans will be filled with confidence seeing his name attached to such successes as 2012’s Safety Not Guaranteed and 2015’s Jurassic World, but might get a little worried seeing his writing credits on 2016’s Monster Trucks and 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Which Zelda game is going to be adapted?
As of yet, no story details have been released regarding Ball’s new movie, yet this doesn’t mean that fans haven’t already started to predict what game might be the focus of the adaptation. In reality, much like how The Super Mario Bros Movie was handled, it’s likely that Nintendo will want a general introduction to the character, with an origin story being the most obvious route for this.
With this considered, it’s likely that the 1998 game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will be used as a primary source. This also makes sense, as the video game is the most critically successful of the entire franchise. Providing an origin story for the character, without the dense backstory of something like 2011’s Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time seems like the most obvious place to start.
Indeed, unlike the aforementioned Super Mario Bros franchise, which consists of a pretty basic storytelling structure, The Legend of Zelda is far more dense. Consisting of different timelines where various versions of Link coexist, all roads in the franchise point back to Ocarina of Time, which ends with this split in storylines.
Who will star in The Legend of Zelda movie?
Just like the potential story of the movie, the cast of The Legend of Zelda has yet to be decided, yet there have been rumours swirling as to who might star in the film for many years at this point.
Link, who is a small elf-like warrior, will be the trickiest character to cast, especially considering the fact that he is the protagonist. Early suggestions as to who should play the character point to the likes of Eliot Page, Timothée Chalamet, Troye Sivan, Wyatt Oleff, Jamie Campbell Bower or Lucas Till, especially if the height of the character can be altered with some neat CGI trickery, yet it’s likely that the character could also be played by an unknown star.
As for Zelda, the most obvious choice is Hunter Schafer, an actor who already holds the acting chops to pull off the major role, thanks to her starring role in HBO’s Euphoria and who would be a very progressive piece of casting. Elsewhere, the likes of Mia Wasikowska, Saoirse Ronan, Anya Taylor-Joy, Elle Fanning, and even Tilda Swinton should be considered, with the latter being fit for a specific version of the princess.
Ganon, the villain, is a vast body of muscle, but he’s also a wise and cunning adversary. Depending on what route Nintendo and Sony want to go down, Josh Brolin would be a smart piece of casting, especially considering his success playing Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it would also be worth considering Oscar Isaac, Tom Hardy, Dave Bautista, Idris Elba, Michael Shannon and Javier Bardem.
When will The Legend of Zelda be released?
There is no word as to when The Legend of Zelda movie might be released, but if The Super Mario Bros Movie is anything to go by, it’s likely that we’ll have to wait a couple of years at least.
For reference, Nintendo announced The Super Mario Bros Movie during a financial briefing on January 31st, 2018, with the movie being released five years later on April 5th, 2023. The movie was delayed by a year, however, due to an unspecified reason during the Covid-19 pandemic, but still, don’t get your hopes up till at least 2026.
Whilst you wait for any further details regarding the movie, take a look at the trailer for the latest video game in the popular series, Tear of the Kingdom, below.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.