Nintendo has announced that a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie is currently in development and slated for release sometime in 2024. The news comes from the official Japanese Nintendo X account. It is accompanied by a statement from Zelda creator and game director Shigeru Miyamoto, who will produce the film alongside Hollywood heavy hitter Avi Arad, chairman of Arad Productions. The film will be directed by Wes Ball, who is most famous for his The Maze Runner trilogy and the most recent Planet of the Apes outing, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which looks sick actually.
This is Miyamoto. I have been working on the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda for many years now with Avi Arad-san, who has produced many mega hit films. [1]
— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) November 7, 2023
The film is set to be produced by Nintendo and Arad Productions jointly, with over 50% of the movie’s funding coming from Nintendo and the remaining input from Sony Pictures Entertainment who will also be handling distribution of the picture. Not much else is known about the production at this point, but in the statement, Miyamoto says that it has been in the works for many years now and that Nintendo is “creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built”.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this announcement is that the film won’t be animated as many suspected after the mammoth success of the Super Mario Bros movie earlier this year. But this raises more important questions like who will voice Link? Which part of Zelda’s wild continuity will be used to form the foundations for the film? It’s all very exciting for now, and with Ball’s eye for blockbuster action at the helm, the series could be in worse hands.
What do you think of Link’s move to live-action? Be sure to let us know in the comments below and on social media.
One part pretentious academic and one part goofy dickhead, James is often found defending strange games and frowning at the popular ones, but he's happy to play just about everything in between. An unbridled love for FromSoftware's pantheon, a keen eye for vibes first experiences, and an insistence on the Oxford comma have marked his time in the industry.
