Polygon has managed to chat with legendary Zelda producer, Eiji Aonuma, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom game director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi. One of the subjects touched on is whether or not they would be interested in a The Legend of Zelda movie given the huge box-office sales success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Mr. Aonuma said “I have to say, I am interested. For sure.” Though he did hint that a Zelda movie isn’t in production at the moment.
Just to ask you another question you probably can’t answer: Does the recent success of the Mario movie have you excited for the prospect of a Zelda adaptation?
Aonuma: I have to say, I am interested. For sure. But it’s not just me being interested in something that makes things happen, unfortunately.
Fujibayashi: Maybe the voice of the fans is what’s important here.
Hope they hire Gendy Tartakovsky to lead the project, samurai jack and primal are the best examples that show his ability to tell stories with minimal to no dialog.
If Zelda movie budget is under 250 000 000 and dont look better like alita or warcraft, Zelda movie fail. Mine biggest fear about zelda movie is 100m budget and low quality director :(
I still think it’d be better to have a series than a movie. Most movies that tell a grand adventure, especially with a fantasy setting like Zelda, need several movies to fully flesh it out.
Good example of this is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each movie builds off the last, but it’s hard to say that as a story each individual movie stands on its own.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re all marvels and I love them so much for the scale and perspective they’re able to pull off- but it’s a miracle the general audience gave the movies their time to tell that grand story. It’s dense, it’s long, and most people tend to not have time to spare for that. Zelda would likely need that same time and care from the audience to get fully engrossed in the world and story, and that’s a high request from them. Surely doable, but worrisome for someone like me who loves Zelda all the same
In my opinion this is what Zelda deserves and it should be live action. But after Mario that has 0 story do you really think they will ever make a really well written Legend of Zelda. Hyrule and Ganon have the potential but it will never happen also cause Nintendo is aimed at children and it just doesnt fit Nintendo’s way of doing things. Again Mario made tons of money they will milk this concept all the way just like they do with super hero movies.
See, my pessimism actually bends the opposite way. I totally agree with what you said about the importance of story for Zelda, but instead of the Mario Movie showing that they’ll just make a Zelda movie without any story, I think that they just wouldn’t know how to make a successful story driven Zelda movie. I think that this would simply halt any Zelda movie from being made.
Nintendo and Aonuma know how important Zelda is, and they actually do put effort into their Zelda stories. A Zelda movie would have a story- but marketing that big wide world to a general audience while still providing a solid story… my skepticism tells me that they just wouldn’t know how to do both. Hence, just no movie being made at all. Nintendo doesn’t tend to release things that they expect to not have an audience for
As long as we get Chris Pratt to play Link. He’s so cool.
I can totally hear his voice in the line, “Well excuuuussee meeee, Princess!”
Why is Nintendo so quick to work on giving the Plumber and Swordsman movies but take forever to make games for the other franchises they own? When we going to get a sequel to Astral Chain?
When will they make a Starfox story 100% original?
I would totally be down for a Legend of Zelda movie, but I have two questions:
1. Which game would they base it off of?
Should they go Live action, CGI, or 2D animation?
Aonuma could maybe persue directing Zelda movies once he’s done like Miyamoto & left the new guy in full charge of the LoZelda games.
It’s a career where you can still work well into your 90s.