The Legend of Zelda Movie Will be Nintendo's First Live-Action Movie - MCE Notices | California State Portal

Over the last few years, Nintendo has taken the world by storm by smashing records left and right with multiple video game movie adaptations. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) is currently the most profitable video game adaptation ever made, earning more than $1.3 billion globally. The film’s direct sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026), currently holds second place, earning just under $1 billion since its release in April.

Both Super Mario movies set up a much larger Nintendo Cinematic Universe, including other popular Nintendo characters like Donkey Kong and Star Fox, and even tease more characters through Easter eggs, like Samus Aran’s Hunter-Class Gunship. So far, all the movies and characters that have been teased in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe have been animated, but one highly anticipated project is daring to change that, breaking a 34-year-long Nintendo tradition.

The Legend of Zelda Will Finally Make Its Way to the Big Screen on April 30, 2027

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

The Legend of Zelda is a gaming franchise that needs no introduction. Dating back all the way to 1986, The Legend of Zelda has been one of the largest and most influential video game series of all time. It stands alongside other Nintendo properties like Super Mario, Pokémon, and even Metroid. To this day, new Legend of Zelda games are always highly anticipated releases, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), which sold over 35 million copies and brought a lot of new fans into the franchise.

While The Legend of Zelda is one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time, it has never actually broken through into Hollywood. This seems like a startling oversight, since popular video games often get video game adaptations, like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and even Sonic the Hedgehog. Admittedly, video game movies also have a pretty negative reputation for never living up to the source material, and Nintendo has felt the sting of this before.

In 2007, Imagi Animation Studios wanted to make a Legend of Zelda feature film, but Nintendo ultimately turned the proposition down. After the original Super Mario Bros. (1993) movie was a financial and critical failure, Nintendo didn’t want to risk one of its best game series for the video game movie curse. After Nintendo’s recent success and plans to expand the Nintendo Cinematic Universe, it makes a lot more sense to finally bring The Legend of Zelda into the fold now.

Interestingly enough, the upcoming Legend of Zelda film shares one critical element with the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie, though. Both movies are live-action films, which is somewhat shocking, since the rest of the modern Nintendo Cinematic Universe has been animated and is expected to keep the animation style across other upcoming projects, like the planned Star Fox standalone movie.

A lot of fans found this live-action decision confusing, especially after all the success enjoyed by The Super Mario Bros. Movie. At first, fans thought that the Nintendo Cinematic Universe would be interconnected, much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that doesn’t appear to be the goal. Projects that can interconnect will, but if the story is better told as a standalone, like The Legend of Zelda, it won’t be directly connected to the rest of the Nintendo Cinematic Universe properties.

Shigeru Miyamoto Believes Live-Action is the Best Format for The Legend of Zelda

Shigeru Miyamoto, the infamous video game developer who created Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and several other iconic video game franchises, is fully invested in the modern Nintendo movies. He produced The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and he is also producing The Legend of Zelda. Miyamoto’s involvement is probably a huge part of the reason the Super Mario movies have done so well, because as the original creator of these characters and universes, he can help shape the movies into exactly what they need to be to impress fans.

Miyamoto believes that the fantasy world of Hyrule better lends itself to live-action than animation. He believes that live-action will better capture the massive scale of Hyrule and the characters that exist within it, and it will also reflect the more serious nature of the stories The Legend of Zelda always tells. He wants fans to be able to feel like they are actually stepping into Hyrule themselves, and the best way to do that is to present fans with a live-action iteration of the video games.

Some Nintendo fans have expressed that they believe this live-action approach is a risk, but fans can expect a lot from The Legend of Zelda movie. While specific plots and story arcs haven’t been officially revealed, fans can expect expanded character backstories that will continue to hold significance throughout the games. Miyamoto himself confirmed that the character development seen in the various Nintendo movies, The Legend of Zelda included, will become relevant in future games.

“Working on the movies, it has become super fun to expand on the characters in various ways,” Miyamoto stated. “That’s why, in future games, we want to stick to the backstories we’ve established in the movies as much as possible.”

This means that the films are directly connected to the video games going forward, and in order to understand future games, fans will have to watch and understand the lore from the movies too. So, in a way, The Legend of Zelda isn’t just based on the infamous franchise; it’s actually helping to reshape the franchise going forward.

As mentioned, we don’t have a lot of specific details about The Legend of Zelda film. We do know that, currently, it has a release date of April 30, 2027, which is earlier than originally expected, and the movie is being directed by Wes Ball. Previously, Ball directed Ruin (2011), The Maze Runner trilogy, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024). The screenplay was written by Derek Connolly and T. S. Nowlin, and the film stars Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link and Bo Bragason as Princess Zelda.

Most of the rest of the information about The Legend of Zelda movie has been kept under wraps, but Miyamoto promises that it’s going to be a strong adaptation that fans will love. The talk of a Zelda movie has been in the works for more than a decade, and Miyamoto insists that they have taken their time to craft something they will be proud to show long-term fans and new viewers alike.