Zelda followers already received a stellar new game with “Tears of the Kingdom” this yr, however Nintendo simply dropped one other thrilling nugget of stories: the gaming large is engaged on a live-action movie primarily based on the Legend of Zelda franchise.
Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the 37-year-old franchise, introduced the information this night.
“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,” he wrote on X in a press release translated from Japanese. “I have asked Avi-san to produce this film with me, and we have now officially started the development of the film with Nintendo itself heavily involved in the production. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it.”
Avi Arad has produced movies like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which gained the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, together with dozens extra Marvel films.
While sudden, this transfer makes loads of sense for Nintendo. Though Link’s story has been unfolding for many years, the franchise is hotter than ever. Breath of the Wild, the 2017 sport launched on Nintendo Switch, has been hailed by each followers and critics as certainly one of the best video video games of all time (extra realistically, it’s certainly one of the finest video games to return out on Nintendo Switch, which is nonetheless excessive reward). When the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, dropped earlier this yr, it in some way managed to stay as much as followers’ large expectations, promoting 20 million copies from May by way of September.
So, if Nintendo noticed match to make a movie all about Mario, a working-class plumber, why not inform the story of Link, a legendary hero spanning time and area?
When Nintendo introduced it was making “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” a number of years again, followers appeared a bit jaded — and likewise confused as to the casting of Chris Pratt as Mario. But the movie was shockingly profitable, even for a product constructed on such iconic IP. The movie grossed greater than $1.3 billion, surpassing “Frozen” as the second-highest-grossing animated film ever (“Frozen II” holds the crown). The Pokémon franchise, one other Nintendo money cow, has been churning out films and tv exhibits at breakneck velocity for many years, even tapping Ryan Gosling to be Pikachu… So why not give Link the highlight this time?
We’re simply hoping Chris Pratt doesn’t audition to play Link.
