The Legend of Zelda Live-Action Movie Announced by Nintendo
Legend of Zelda is coming to the big screen.
A new live-action The Legend of Zelda movie has been officially confirmed by Nintendo. For years, Nintendo has sworn off adapting its characters outside of gaming, partially because gaming adaptations have a track record of being pretty poor. Nintendo has one of the most infamous examples of a bad video game movie with the original live action Super Mario Bros. film which was universally panned. However, things have turned around in recent years as Hollywood has gotten a better grasp on understanding what fans want from these kinds of projects and work in tandem with the developers to bring them to life. One of the biggest movies of 2023 was Universal's own Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed well over a billion dollars at the box office.
Now, Nintendo is setting its eyes at another massive video game adaptation: The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo is joining forces with Sony Pictures to bring Zelda to the big screen with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball set to direct the film. The Legend of Zelda movie will also be produced by long time Spider-Man producer, Avi Arad.
"I have been working on the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda for many years now with Avi Arad-san, who has produced many mega hit films," said Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto in a statement. "I have asked Avi-san to produce this film with me, and we have now officially started the development of the film with Nintendo itself heavily involved in the production. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it."
With Miyamoto's statement, it sounds like ambitions for a Zelda movie existed long before anyone could've predicted the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Zelda is arguably Nintendo's second biggest franchise behind Mario, with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom having sold nearly 20 million copies in about 6 months of release. It's a juggernaut franchise and will likely continue to get even bigger once this film has been released. There is no news on a potential release date, but if a director is lined up, it does seem promising. Ball will release his Apes movie in the spring of 2024 and presumably, Zelda would follow. So long as there aren't major hiccups in the development in the film, it will likely take significantly less time than if Nintendo had decided to make it an animated film.
The Legend of Zelda Movie Cast
As of right now, we have no word on the cast for the live action Legend of Zelda movie. Given Nintendo is setting up shop with Sony, many are already predicting an obvious piece of casting: Tom Holland as Link. Holland has been Sony's golden boy since making his debut as Spider-Man and was subsquently given the opportunity to play Nathan Drake in Uncharted. With that said, it would not be surprising if Holland headlines The Legend of Zelda movie, but we'll just have to wait and see.