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Nintendo Is Teaming Up With Sony To Create A Live-Action The Legend Of Zelda Movie

Here's hoping they'll let Link speak in it.

48 Comments

It's official: The Legend of Zelda is getting the live-action treatment. Nintendo shared the news via its official website earlier today, writing that the film will be co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Nintendo veteran and The Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto overseeing production alongside Marvel Studios' Avi Arad.

According to the press release, Nintendo has already found The Legend of Zelda's director in Wes Ball. Ball's work includes The Maze Runner trilogy, as well as the upcoming Planet of the Apes film, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Nintendo also stated that the company will be "deeply involved in the movie production, with the aim to put smiles on everyone's faces through entertainment."

"By producing visual contents of Nintendo IP by itself, Nintendo is creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built, through different means apart from its dedicated game consoles," the press release said.

The news comes after years of speculation that a live-action version of the legendary story was in the works. Back in 2015, The Wall Street Journal cited an anonymous source in its report that the studio was working on a live-action The Legend of Zelda tv show for Netflix. However, former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told Time Magazine that the claim was "not based on correct information." The rumor surfaced again in 2018, this time with Castlavania director Adi Shankar attached to the series.

In 2021, comedian and voice actor Adam Conover revealed there was a bit more truth to these rumors than previously thought. According to Conover, Nintendo had reached out his employer at the time, CollegeHumor, to ask the studio to create a stop-motion show based on Star Fox. Conover stated that Miyamoto then came to the office to discuss the project, before ultimately scrapping both the Star Fox show and a live-action The Legend of Zelda series due to leaks. In May 2023, however, longtime The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma told Polygon the team he was still interested in creating some form of Zelda adaptation in the future.

The studio has not yet revealed any details pertaining to the film's cast or plot, or the year its expected to release. Considering the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes, it could be awhile before we hear any additional information regarding the project. The most recent entry in The Legend of Zelda series, Tears of the Kingdom, released earlier this year to critical-acclaim, with GameSpot's review calling it, "a triumph of open-ended game design that pays homage to the best parts of the Zelda franchise's own storied history."

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ID0ntKn0w7

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Really, though...will they have English accents? BoTW was all over the place with this, and Link always sounded like a Japanese boy to me when he fell or got hit or otherwise grunted. I guess The Witcher proved they can do a bit of everything, since no one said Hyrule is on Planet Earth

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nintendians

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odd crossover between nintendo and sony.

would like it, if it was a 3d cgi animated film instead of live action.

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Mareo147

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No Tom Holland and please no female playing as Link no offense. Give a new young actor who on the rise of fame a chance to play the most iconic Mideval video game hero icon

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ItsNotA2Mer

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Very cool indeed!

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KingofRogues

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IF Disney is any example, the people in charge have no idea how to make a good movie, let alone a movie from a popular franchise. "Five nights at freddies" "mario" So im pretty concerned

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Boodger

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@KingofRogues: Mario was decent, they really couldn't have done any better considering the source material. The movie was exactly what it needed to be for a story about a plumber in a mushroom land fighting turtles. I enjoyed it for what it was.

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ID0ntKn0w7

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Edited By ID0ntKn0w7

At least they didn't give Adam the opportunity to ruin everything.

These comments are full of people with strong opinions and bad ideas.

"Link must be girly." "Link must be seven feet tall." "Link must not speak."

Here's hoping he only grunts like a Japanese teenager, except for when he's controlling a magical statue, when he'll yell "Come on!" like a little boy from Idaho.

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sladakrobot

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This movie will fail with the main role...Link.
He needs to be an adult male or a boy but who also looks feminine enough...kinda androgyn (when did this worked out the last time?).

That at least should have attracted more young male and female players in Japan to Link according to Nintendo.

I think in the game Nier(Gestalt for the west),the devs made changes to the main character extra for the western market back then(older,manly,has a daughter instead of being young boy with a feminine touch and having a sister).

I dont have much hope but at same i`ll be happy to be proved wrong.

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Tiwill44

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Edited By Tiwill44

Dang, when was the last time Nintendo teamed up with Sony? If I'm not wrong, it was when we got the PlayStation 1... maybe this will lead to something good too?

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ID0ntKn0w7

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Edited By ID0ntKn0w7

@Tiwill44: next up: no more underpowered Nintendo consoles, Mario and Samus and Link on Playstation!

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nintendians

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@id0ntkn0w7: doubt it, the only way to see them on the playstation is to hack the playstation to run nintendo systems emulators on it.

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ID0ntKn0w7

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@nintendians: yeah, I was fantasizing

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nintendians

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@id0ntkn0w7: okay then.

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HectorV

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@id0ntkn0w7: Metroid as told by the team behind Returnal, can you imagine?

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ID0ntKn0w7

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@hectorv: i can. But mostly I just want Nintendo games on Playstation

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s1taz4a3l

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They should start with link awakening then follow with ocarina of time.

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illegal_peanut

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I need to know, and I mean NEEEEEEEEEEEEED to know who is voicing Link.

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ID0ntKn0w7

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@illegal_peanut: Melissa McCarthy. Or Cheech Marin. Or Joseph Biden.

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somberfox

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Seriously? Live action instead of CG like the amazing Mario movie? Wow

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soulmuncher666

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@somberfox: That movie sucked.

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RestatBonfire

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@somberfox: you thought the mario movie was amazing? Lol

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TreeChopper88

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@restatbonfire: Most of the people commenting here are bots.

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MoogleStar

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Don't worry Nintendo. Big daddy Sony is here 😌

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comp_atkins

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so link is going to talk?

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blaznwiipspman1

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Oh heck yeah!! I can't wait. Even if it's trash, I look forward to watching it.

I feel like metroid would also make a great movie.

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Boodger

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This is a cursed project. Zelda won't translate well into a movie

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Hallenbeck77

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Hallenbeck77  Moderator

@boodger: Why do you feel it's cursed?

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Boodger

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@hallenbeck77: the Zelda series is not highly cinematic in a way that matches the narrative structure of a movie. The games are more about player discovery and exploration, in a way that doesn't lend itself well to a 2 hour story. The lore is there, but that lore will feel like cheap fanservice tuat doesn't capture what makes it special in the games to begin with. Link speaking is a symptom of that; he is a blank avatar for players to insert themselves into, a "Link" to the game world. Having him talk will be awkward. Having a dilent protagonist will be awkward. Trying to cram everything that makes the Zelda games special into a couple hours will be awkward. This will be an awkeard movie.

Mario and Sonic worked as films because they already have protagonists with established personalities, and vibrant worlds that match the light-hearted and comedy focused tone of kids movies. Zelda does not occupy the same space as those games, and has more work cut out for it to "work" with audiences.

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amillionhp

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@boodger:

Well, they'd have to do what they've been doing the past couple games which is make the story and plot actually about Zelda. That is honestly fine, it is the game's name afterall. So long as they dont deliberately go out of their way to humiliate Link as they did to Mario.... but they probably will.

Im not at all interested in seeing a live action Zelda though. CGI would have been perfect.

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Ives74

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@boodger: I get the same feeling about the idea of doing gears of war or borderlands. The stories aren't unique or all that interesting. It's the gameplay that made them fun and I don't see how to translate that into a movie. Emerging from the cave in BoTW was cinematic but after that you spend hours exploring in silence and learning how things work. That was the most impactful part for me, just marvelling in what you could do. They can't put that into a passive watching experiece.

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RestatBonfire

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Edited By RestatBonfire

@boodger: link has talked before and it wasn't bad just cheesy

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Boodger

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@restatbonfire: cheesy is bad. At least if we want quality and not just memes

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Hallenbeck77

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@boodger: Definitely something to think about. This also makes me wonder who is going to write the film.

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ID0ntKn0w7

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Edited By ID0ntKn0w7

@hallenbeck77: the guy who wrote Jurassic World

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HectorV

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While the Mario movie was truly enjoyable and a great movie for everyone (except of course some internet folks), I believe the success was due to a lack of heavy lore in the Mario franchise.

I don't doubt that Nintendo will deliver something great, but even the most simple Zelda games rely heavily on carefully crafted stories to create outstanding games.

With all that said, I can't wait to see what they come up with! If I had to choose, I'd pick Wind Waker to adapt.

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TreeChopper88

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@hectorv: A Mario movie? 1993?

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awaymonsyda

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@hectorv: The Mario movie was the most mediocre Illumination dog shit piece of animation to exist in the past decade whose success can be chalked to Mario's international brand recognition. It is the definition anemic and forgettable. The only ones that think it's a genuinely great movie are nintendo man babies like you who base their identity off shoving amiibos up their ass.

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ID0ntKn0w7

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@awaymonsyda: that reminds me, everyone, we're moving the amiibo-up-our-asses party to Friday night.

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ItsNotA2Mer

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@id0ntkn0w7: Suhweet! I'll bring the Nube, (Ninty branded lube).

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Ives74

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@awaymonsyda: thing bad you stupid stuff dumb me better

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awaymonsyda

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Edited By awaymonsyda

@ives74: Glad your dumb chimpanzee brain learned the error of its ways.

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ID0ntKn0w7

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@awaymonsyda: words bad me not understand you dumb with big words me better not get joke joke is for dumb sillies me no get laid get laid is for loser

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uninspiredcup

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> Always basically been a cartoon

> Let's not make it a cartoon

World Of Warcraft 2.0

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ID0ntKn0w7

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@uninspiredcup: so the problem with the Warcraft movie was that it wasn't animated? Would you not then say the same thing for God of War, Bioshock, Splinter Cell (all in pre-production currently or in the past), and all superhero movies, since they began as drawings?

Lord of the Rings and Patriot Games and No Country for Old Men were all novels. So are these movies no good because they changed formats?

A Zelda anime would've been cool. But I'd be hyped for this if they had a better creative team.

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uninspiredcup

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Edited By uninspiredcup

@id0ntkn0w7: "so the problem with the Warcraft movie was that it wasn't animated? Would you not then say the same thing for God of War, Bioshock, Splinter Cell (all in pre-production currently or in the past), and all superhero movies, since they began as drawings?"

Still images and animation are two different things.

Written novels and visual mediums are two different things.

An actual good comparison would be something like the Loin King or the other many, many live-action adaptations of animations.

Are they better?

No.

Do they have a visual difference where the emotive nature of the visuals are lost?

Yes.

Do they comparatively come across as hollow and souless?

Yes.

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ID0ntKn0w7

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@uninspiredcup: i don't think cynical Disney adaptations are soulless because they have real people and real settings on-screen. Maybe the fact that they're cynical cash-grabs based on cartoons that were overrated back in the 90s anyway has more to do with them being soul-less.

And don't dodge the question. Were you really asserting that an adaptation in a different medium is inherently bad?

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uninspiredcup

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Edited By uninspiredcup

@id0ntkn0w7: You totally ignored my point, forced you're own point in as fact, then reasserted a point I highlighted was misguided (using two different mediums one not visual )

Animation and live action (including CGI aiming for more realism) are two different things. Basic stuff like how lighting, character design, movement, color etc... etc.. etc.. have a profound visual difference.

https://youtu.be/3twSBILH7ug

Zelda is cartoon. None of its iterations have aimed for hyper-realism.

Practically every lauded game/movie is animated, not live-action, because gaming is a highly visual medium that places great emphasizes on stylized visuals.

Even something like Castlevania which has absolute cringe dialogue writing, largely gets by thanks to an adhering to Ayami Kojimas art-direction.

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ID0ntKn0w7

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@uninspiredcup: you insist on talking past me, even while pointing out that we're talking past each other.

Every Zelda game does not have a "cartoon" style. That's the first wrong assertion that you made. You've now made it more than once. It's still wrong. Sorry if the N64 didn't have photo realistic graphics, bit that was not a cartoon. Arguing that it should be animated because the video games aren't FMV is silly. And on that note...

"Practically every lauded game/movie is animated, not live action." Every game is animated. It's CG. You know this. I gave examples of games that are clearly not cartoons in spite of this. And sure, nobody cares Schindler's List and Citizen Kane and Pulp Fiction, because they're live action. Again, what a silly thing to assert. Here's another one. "It was never meant to be hyper-realistic." It's about magic and moblins and fairies. That's kind of a no-brainer. Are Guardians of the Galaxy and the Transformers movies hyper-realistic? How about most Jason Statham films?

You sidestepped the analogy, either by misunderstanding it or pretending to. Your first volley was a protest against changing mediums. You ignored my parallels and responded by referring to cynical nostalgia-bait cash-grabs (which I pointed out) that rely heavily on very unrealistic (irony) CG.

Your final point, that games rely heavily on style (some do, some don't), ignores every other medium that oozes style. Ever hear of Tarantino, James Gunn, David Lynch? Ever see 300 or 1917 or Parasite? Have you ever read Dave Eggers or Chuck Palahniuk or, Hell, Vonnegut? This is not unique.

So I hope I have satisfactorily addressed all of your absurd points. I guess your real point is "I like cartoons, and I don't like live action." Message received.

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