Christopher Meledandri, the CEO of animation studio Illumination, has outright denied recent rumors that the company will look to create a movie adaptation of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda franchise. Following the massive success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie this year, it has stood to reason that Nintendo and Illumination will look to collaborate with one another more in the future. Within the past week, one such report has come about claiming that a Zelda project at Illumination is about to be greenlit. According to Meledandri, though, this is not accurate.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In a conversation with The Wrap, Meledandri acknowledged that he had heard rumors about Illumination working on a Legend of Zelda movie, but said that he has no idea how such an idea started getting traction. He went on to acknowledge that he has a great working relationship with those at Nintendo and is even now on the company’s board of directors. Despite this, he implied that any rumors or reports tied to a Zelda movie are bogus for the time being.
“I don’t know where that came from,” Meledandri said. “I mean I can understand how people would surmise all sorts of things because obviously, we’ve had a great experience working together. My relationship with Nintendo now includes being on their board of directors, so I understand how people can surmise these things. But in terms of the specifics, that was just something that I’ve been hearing lots of rumors. This is just about what’s next between Nintendo and Illumination.”
Obviously, there’s always a chance that Meledandri could be using smoke and mirrors to deny that a Zelda movie is happening at Illumination. And even if he is being truthful, the possibility is in play that such a Zelda project could be greenlit in the weeks or months ahead. Regardless, the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie has essentially ensured that we’ll be getting more Nintendo adaptations on the big screen in the years to come. Whether or not Zelda ends up being one video game that makes the transition to film isn’t yet known, but it would make quite a bit of sense given the popularity of the series.
Would you like to see Illumination embark on making a movie set within the world of The Legend of Zelda? Or should the studio stick solely to Super Mario? Let me know what you think either down in the comments or hit me up on social media at @MooreMan12.
