Today via a press release, Nintendo finally shone a light on the idea of making a live-action film based off The Legend of Zelda.

This sort of thing has been wanted by many for a long time. It's wild to think it's actually in motion now. There are so many questions and speculation to be had.

Will Link speak?
Will the movie tell the tale from one of the games, or be a new stand-alone story?
Will it still be canon to the series as it stands today? (Ganon-Canon TM)

It's pretty interesting to see what they've setup for themselves. They've got Arad Productions, who had worked on recent Spiderman films, Uncharted, various other in-process gaming films, and a ton of Pac-Man animations. They've also got Wes Ball who directed the Maze Runner films and the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes film. The latter is a film trailer I just recently saw and while I never cared for the franchise, I thought the trailer looked quite good. Nintendo is putting in more than half the dough for this, so they'll have a heavy hand in it, especially with Miyamoto producing, but Sony Pictures is also supporting, which is just plain funny to be honest.

What do you all think about this film news? What's your own speculation have you thinking? What a time to be alive, eh?

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Just saw the news myself. This could go either way. Cautiously optimistic, but they're going to need to tread *very* carefully.

I would think an adaptation of the Imprisoning War and Link's quest to restore Hyrule and recover the Triforce (and Zelda) from Ganondorf should be the focus.

That would allow them to hit the main beats of Zelda lore but also widen the scope for the big fantasy battle scenes that casual audiences love ala LotR. Plus that whole event has always been the nexus point of the Zelda timeline ever since its first reference in A Link to the Past and reinforced with the pre-eminent position of Ocarina of Time. (Not to mention the recent backstory of Tears of the Kingdom)


PS.

DrFinkelstein said:

but Sony Pictures is also supporting, which is just plain funny to be honest.

Read that contract carefully Nintendo! . The last thing we want is a repeat of the Playstation debacle where Sony tries to sneak some clause in that gets them rights to the Zelda franchise as a result of the film. lol

Posted by

Shadowlink

on: 11/08/23, 03:20

Edited:

11/08/23, 03:22

It was a running gag amongst my siblings that if Nintendo ever made a Zelda film, Zelda would be played by Morgan Freeman... Needless to say it has resurfaced.

Let's hope that after the success of the Mario movie they decide to make it longer than 1/12 hours. Even for a game with very little plot, the Mario movie was very rushed.

Posted by

Stan McStanly

on: 11/08/23, 04:11

Link will talk, the world won't end, and the games will finally follow suit.

Posted by

TheBigG753

on: 11/08/23, 16:38

No thanks, I'm good. It's not like I have to watch the movie, but I really have no interest in this. Zelda narratives aren't necessarily a good fit for a movie, and Miyamoto is not the man to develop a Zelda narrative for a movie with a movie studio. Tezuka would have been a better choice considering who among the two Zelda creators was the one to actually push for and write a friggin' story in the first place. Ten Ten deserves more respect, goddamnit. Or, I could have been cool with it if they'd asked Mark Frost to provide input again, like during Link's Awakening's development. Then there would be a chance that this flick won't be safe as fuck.

If Nintendo could have convinced Studio Ghibli to design animation based loosely off the A Link to the Past concept art I would have been interested in spite of all this, but they're really gonna have to knock this out of the park for me to care.

@TheBigG753
Then the world will end.

Posted by

r_hjort

on: 11/08/23, 18:32

@r_hjort

Posted by

TheBigG753

on: 11/08/23, 18:36

Zelda is my favorite series of all but I'm mostly curious about this movie rather than all that...excited? It's a bit cliche at this point but I would've really liked to see Ghibli try their hand at this. I think they could've pulled off the quiet quirkiness of the series and medieval-with-a-sprinkling-of-Japanese aesthetic. (Then again, their last film based off an epic fantasy was a plopper)

Live-action though, I dunno. I remember in the early aughts that everyone but me wanted Zelda to be more like Lord of the Rings. Maybe they'll get their wish. Maybe Link will look like a far-too-old cosplayer instead of the Harry Potter-aged kid he's supposed to be. Maybe it'll be a boring epic that takes itself far too seriously, or a cynically detached quip-fest that doesn't take itself seriously enough.

Or...maybe it'll end up being magical and amazing. Stranger things have happened!

Posted by

TriforceBun

on: 11/08/23, 18:48

I have very low hopes for this, lol. The Zelda devs themselves don't know if it's a series about mystery and loneliness or a series about anime and cosplay.





Even Tears of the Kingdom, with its emphasis on deep gameplay and emergence, couldn't shut up. It seems obvious which end of the spectrum a live-action movie will be on.

I hope I'm proven wrong!

Posted by

Secret_Tunnel

on: 11/08/23, 19:19

Edited:

11/08/23, 19:20

Now people are reporting that Derek Connolly is writing. The dude who wrote the Jurassic World movies and Kong: Skull Island. This is gonna be a bland, focus group approved ass promotional product first and an actual creative attempt at bringing the soul of a decades long running game series second.

Posted by

r_hjort

on: 11/08/23, 19:42

Whatever it ends up being, I just hope the tone isn't super serious. The world of Zelda is weird, wacky, and wonderful, embrace it!

Posted by

Mop it up

on: 11/08/23, 21:14

Timothee Chalamet is going to be Link, I'm calling it now.

Posted by

Zero

on: 11/09/23, 02:49

@Mop it up

Agreed but why can't we have both? I'm thinking a modern day Labyrinth.

Posted by

Abdooooo

on: 11/09/23, 02:50

The fact that Sony is producing this instead of Universal after the success Nintendo had with them on the Mario movie is just weird as Hell to me.

Posted by

Brick

on: 11/09/23, 03:28

@Abdooooo I'm not saying it can't be both, I just don't want it to be all serious. Perhaps it can strike a balance closer to a number of the games, where the overall plot is generally serious but then silly side stuff happens.

Posted by

Mop it up

on: 11/09/23, 04:09

Who will play Tingle?

Posted by

Brick

on: 11/09/23, 09:08

Brick said:

Who will play Tingle?

Posted by

TheBigG753

on: 11/09/23, 17:54

Edited:

11/09/23, 17:54

@TheBigG753 Amazing! No joke, I was gonna say the same thing, ha ha.

Posted by

Mop it up

on: 11/09/23, 20:49

@TheBigG753

Excellent casting.

Posted by

DrFinkelstein

on: 11/11/23, 06:17

I didn't expect much from the Mario movie, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was fun, and I grinned through most of it. (I also turned my brain way, way down for the duration, and I'm sure that helped.) The quality overall was excellent.

I have even lower expectations from a Zelda movie, so if the same holds true as what happened with Mario, I'll be pretty happy.

Posted by

J.K. Riki

on: 11/14/23, 15:53

Too late for Orlando Bloom to play a "teenage-era" Link. Oh well.

I don't have high hopes for this one. Regardless of which Zelda game you reference, Link is basically on his own the entire time. It's difficult to make a movie around that kind of premise.

A TV show or maybe a mini-series could work, though.

Guess we'll see.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 11/19/23, 02:05

@GameDadGrant

In the games Link often partners up at times. They'll probably just do an extended version of that. Or heck, even Zelda.

Posted by

DrFinkelstein

on: 11/19/23, 13:34