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After the massive success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Nintendo would continue to partner with Universal Pictures and Illumination for more animated films. According to a recent unconfirmed report, those talks may be happening behind the scenes right now, specifically relating to the Legend of Zelda series.

This report comes from Jeff Sneider a reporter and film critic speaking on the most recent episode of The Hot Mic podcast. According to Sneider, Universal Pictures is in talks with Nintendo to produce a Legend of Zelda animated movie. In fact, he indicates that they are close to closing a “big deal”, and refers to the project as potentially being “the next big Illumination-Nintendo franchise”.

As of now, nothing official has been confirmed on this front from either Nintendo or Universal. That said, Nintendo has previously indicated their interest in pursuing more film projects, and Zelda seems like a logical next step after Mario. Of course, even if this rumor turns out to be true, we may not hear about it officially for quite some time. Stay tuned!

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Comments (11)

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kuribo

I’m skeptical. It’s a much harder franchise to put into a movie. I think we’ll see a Mario sequel long before a Zelda movie.

If it does happen, PLEASE for the love of Hylia don’t include “real world” songs in the soundtrack. There’s only so many movies you can shove “I need a hero” into.

kuribo

10M ago

I’m skeptical. It’s a much harder franchise to put into a movie. I think we’ll see a Mario sequel long before a Zelda movie.

If it does happen, PLEASE for the love of Hylia don’t include “real world” songs in the soundtrack. There’s only so many movies you can shove “I need a hero” into.

Edited 1 time

I think I can agree with all of that.

And I'll just add that I don't think Illumination is the right studio to do a Zelda movie. I don't think they can pull it off anywhere near as well as they did with the Mario movie, which their style of comedy matched a lot better. And there may not be a "right" studio... like you said, it won't be easy to make a Zelda movie. The way to adapt it is not as straightforward as Mario.

And I know it's all just a rumor... but there's no way Illumination and Nintendo haven't at least talked about Zelda yet.


kuribo

10M ago

@hawk

From a strictly technical animation perspective, Illumination is more than capable of doing a Zelda movie. But I agree the style of writing they tend to use doesn’t fit with the themes of Zelda.

I think adapting Zelda nowadays is harder than what it used to be. BOTW and TOTK is basically a “choose your own adventure” in terms of how you experience the game and story. Any adaptation would have to follow the linear route of past Zelda games.
IMO it’s one of the most difficult franchises to adapt and easiest to get wrong. Mario, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, Metroid would be comparatively far easier to adapt well.


Indeed I wonder how one matching story could be done for the Zelda series, because I think the stories throughout the games are a bit all over the place.


Yeah, you'd almost have to create a standard "Link and Zelda defeat Ganon and save Hyrule" story to represent a wide range of Zelda games. They'd throw in a few short dungeons and create some generally Zelda-ish side characters.

But I wonder if instead they'd just adapt a specific Zelda, like Ocarina of Time, because it still represents the series so well and has that nostalgic pull. At least then they'd have official Zelda side characters to work with. And of course Zelda could be a ninja because they were going to do that anyway.


nin2000

10M ago

Hope it doesn’t end up with the upside down storyline that the Mario Movie had. For some reason despite being more BROTHERS, Luigi was locked in a cage early on (ala Peach in the Mario games), and Peach was an invincible, unrelatable ‘girl’boss.

I imagine Zelda will be the hero in this movie, with a bumbling Link who struggles to do anything.


kingbroly

10M ago

@kuribo

Zelda is next. Then Metroid. If Zelda worries you, that should petrify you.


enthropy

10M ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxav9Jj7R68

=(:::::::::::


Metroid movie is not happening. Too niche. Realistically it’s a C tier franchise at best in terms of market share and mind share. Easier to adapt than Zelda though.


kingbroly

10M ago

@kuribo

Don't worry, I'll just sit here, waiting for time to prove me correct. Unless they get a 2nd Mario movie out first, but I'm talking about franchises.


joeshabadoo

10M ago

In recent years, with the last two entries in particular, Nintendo has added a significant level of deserved gravitas to the Zelda franchise, and it’s one that I also think Illumination isn’t equipped to represent effectively. They should be smart enough to be involved as co-producers and publishers and such but bring in a studio like Ghibli to work hand in hand with Nintendo Pictures and Aonuma/Fujibayashi. It’s a shame that the Spiderverse movies are Sony Animation studios and wouldn’t ever get involved in making a Zelda movie