Well folks, it's actually happened. After the monumental success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo has announced an upcoming live-action movie based on The Legend of Zelda.
While details for the time being are scarce, we'll be keeping this guide updated in the coming months as we learn more about the project, including its release date, its duration, who's starring in it, and more. There's plenty to get excited about, and we can't wait to hear more from producers Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad.
For now, let's dive into some of the nitty-gritty, shall we?
Director - Who is directing The Legend of Zelda movie?
Wes Ball is The Legend of Zelda Movie director.
Wes Ball started his career in Hollywood with a short animated film called Ruin. After this, he directed a trilogy of Maze Runner movies: The Maze Runner (2014), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015), and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018).
His most recent directing project is the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is scheduled to release on May 24th, 2024. 20th Century Studios has stated that the movie will be the start of a new trilogy. However, it is currently unknown whether Wes Ball will continue to be involved now that he is directing The Legend of Zelda movie.
Writer - Who is writing The Legend of Zelda movie script?
Deadline has reported that Derek Connolly is writing the Legend of Zelda movie screenplay.
Connolly is best known for his collaborations with filmmaker Colin Trevorrow. He has written screenplays for all three movies in the Jurassic World trilogy along with Kong: Skull Island and The Detective Pikachu Movie.
Connolly also worked on the first draft of what would eventually become Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with Colin Trevorrow. The draft was titled Star Wars: Duel of the Fates and it would eventually be reworked when J.J. Abrams was brought on to direct. Abrams rewrote the script with Chris Terrio, but elements of Connolly and Trevorrow's draft would remain, allowing them to retain writer credits.
Producer - Who is Avi Arad?
Avi Arad is an Israeli-American film producer who has worked extensively on licensed movies relating to the Marvel IP through his company Arad Productions.
Originally, he was the CEO of a now-defunct company called ToyBiz before going on to found a teeny-tiny entity called Marvel Studios. He is known for providing significant assistance in the growth of Marvel Studios prior to its acquisition by Disney in 2009.
Examples of his work include Spider-Man 2 (2004), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Iron Man (2008), Venom (2018), and Morbius (2022). According to Rotten Tomatoes, his highest-rated movie was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) with a resounding 98%, and his worst is Bratz (2007) which only managed to muster up 10% (though Morbius isn't far off at 15%).
Regarding other video game adaptations, Arad has produced the Uncharted movie (2022) for Sony Pictures Releasing and will be producing the Eli Roth-directed Borderlands adaptation set to release on August 9, 2024.
Cast - Who is starring in The Legend of Zelda movie?
We don't know the Legend of Zelda movie cast yet.
It's unclear if casting for the roles of Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, and others has even begun at this stage of the project. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long to find out.
Release Date - When will The Legend of Zelda Movie release?
We don't know The Legend of Zelda Movie release date yet.
According to producer Shigeru Miyamoto in his announcement on Twitter, The Legend of Zelda Movie is likely quite a way off, stating that "It will take time until its completion". He has since stated during a Q&A session that he and Avi Arad had been discussing the movie for 10 years, so who knows how much longer they'll need on the production.
In the realm of total speculation, considering that Nintendo launched Super Mario Bros. Wonder roughly six months after the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that Nintendo will want to align the launch of The Legend of Zelda Movie with an upcoming Zelda game. After all, Nintendo has quite plainly stated that the success of the Mario movie has had a positive impact on Mario game sales.
Given that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launched on May 12th earlier this year, we may well be waiting for quite a while.
Is Nintendo directly involved with The Legend of Zelda movie?
Yes! Nintendo is co-funding The Legend of Zelda Movie with Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
More than 50% of the project will be financed by Nintendo, and Miyamoto has stated that Nintendo will be "heavily involved in the production".
Does this mean Sony will assist with future Legend of Zelda games?
Good lord, no.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is funding The Legend of Zelda movie alongside Nintendo, is worlds apart from Sony Interactive Entertainment, the branch of Sony that focuses on video game production. We highly doubt Nintendo will let Sony touch the Legend of Zelda games
Weren't there previous rumours of a Legend of Zelda movie?
Rumours of a Legend of Zelda movie have been percolating for a good while now, but there have also been rumours of a TV series.
Back in 2007, the now-defunct Imagi Animation Studios (TMNT, Astro Boy) had actually pitched an animated Zelda movie to Nintendo, but the latter passed on the idea at the time. Years later, following the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023, rumours spread of another collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination on a Zelda movie, but this was denied.
In 2015, Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix was working with Nintendo to produce a TV series based on The Legend of Zelda, and would aim to provide a family-friendly take on Game of Thrones. Neither Netflix nor Nintendo commented on the rumour at the time, and nothing else came of it.
What are your hopes and dreams for The Legend of Zelda movie? Let us know with a comment, and if there's anything you wish to know that we haven't already covered, shout out and we'll do our best to tick it off.