Rumour Per Jeff Sneider, Universal and Nintendo coming close to finalizing a deal for a Legend of Zelda film (UPDATE: Illumination denies rumor)

[WestEgg]

This came up in another thread, but figured it was worth its own thread.



This is the source, it's basically the first thing they talk about:



There's a few things worth noting:

• The tweet mentions illumination directly, and Sneider in the video seems to indicate it would be an Illumination production, but the rights would be going to Universal and other options are potentially on the table. Having said that, I do think an Illumination production would be most likely.
• Apparently Nintendo was able to charge a hefty price for this deal. They already co-financed the Mario movie, so I'm curious what else was thrown in to entice the deal.
• This is a rumor and unconfirmed, so take with a grain of salt. I'm not super familiar with Sneider's credibility, but the internet seems to be taking this somewhat seriously, so it is a current point of discussion.

 

[Lugia667]

after how much control Nintendo had over the mario film, I bet people are going to be understanding that this probably won't just be minions with a green hat.

Right?

 

[big lantern ghost]

This would make sense, since the Mario movie turned out so well (financially, I mean). You can’t really do a candy-coloured, endless chain of winks and nods strategy for Zelda in the same way though; it would have to be a way better film!

Who would be a good writer to put on this movie?

 

[Lugia667]

This would make sense, since the Mario movie turned out so well (financially, I mean). You can’t really do a candy-coloured, endless chain of winks and nods strategy for Zelda in the same way though; it would have to be a way better film!

Who would be a good writer to put on this movie?

first the strike has to end

 

[Dizzle]

This would make sense, since the Mario movie turned out so well (financially, I mean). You can’t really do a candy-coloured, endless chain of winks and nods strategy for Zelda in the same way though; it would have to be a way better film!

Who would be a good writer to put on this movie?

It's gonna be an LMM musical and you're gonna like it.

 

[WestEgg]

This would make sense, since the Mario movie turned out so well (financially, I mean). You can’t really do a candy-coloured, endless chain of winks and nods strategy for Zelda in the same way though; it would have to be a way better film!

Who would be a good writer to put on this movie?

I'm probably a little lesson leary of this than a lot of people, even if it is Illumination who animates it, because it really will come down to Nintendo's involvement and the writing/directing. The Mario movie sold me on a few things, that Illumination can produce some gorgeous animation with great art direction, and that they can make something that successfully evokes the feel of its source material. Zelda is not Mario, and this would not be a Mario movie. If Aonuma and other Zelda staff are involved, I feel they know the tone and inputs on what the film would need, and from there, it's more a matter of who is writing and directing the film rather than who is animating it.

 

[big lantern ghost]

Zelda is not Mario, and this would not be a Mario movie.

This is my concern as far as Illumination making it; it’s just so completely out of their wheelhouse that I’m not sure a lot of their strengths would really apply, regardless of who is helming it. They’ve never really attempted something without a cartoonish tone, without exaggerated cartoonish movements. The Mario movie was way closer to what they already do: make not that good movies that undeniably pop off the screen.

 

[EvilChameleon]

Figures Zelda would be the next property they tackle. If this rumor is true, of course.
Still hoping for a Splatoon movie within the next decade.

 

[Pavolink]

After how much I liked their Mario movie, I’m more than Ok. Even more if Nintendo is behind them supervising.

 

[SirShorse]

I'm wonder which setting of Zelda they're going to use as a base. Link to the Past? Zelda I (which wouldn't work as well IMO)? Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom?
My one hope is that they don't make Ganondorf a goofball at points in the movie like they did with Bowser. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about the movie but The Legend of Zelda needs a more serious tone than the Mario Movie.

 

[boodream]

I'm in the same state of mind as when they announced the Super Mario movie: I'd especially like it not to be bad. If it can be good, so much the better, but above all, I don't want it to be bad. I'm frankly skeptical about how it will turn out. More so than I was about Mario. Because a colorful, fun animated Mario Movie kind of made sense.

I don't know what kind of adaptation makes sense for Zelda. It's already been treated lightly, resulting in a horrible cartoon. When it's treated seriously, it gives the horrible English dubbing of open-world games that is "inspired by Games Of Thrones".

Anyway, I think the most important thing, more than the studio (because for a lot of reasons it makes sense for Nintendo to continue their successful partnership with Universal), the only thing I care about is that the adaptation really has Zelda DNA and doesn't just sound like another generic Hollywood take on an epic adventure movie. I feared this for Mario, and the film, which isn't a great movie, was more to my liking because it managed to be more than a generic Hollywood take on family entertainment.

 

[AtomicZach]

I'm wonder which setting of Zelda they're going to use as a base. Link to the Past? Zelda I (which wouldn't work as well IMO)? Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom?
My one hope is that they don't make Ganondorf a goofball at points in the movie like they did with Bowser. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about the movie but The Legend of Zelda needs a more serious tone than the Mario Movie.

Let's go maximum chaos

BOTW concept art.

You can smell the Axe Body Spray from accross the screen.

 

[Lugia667]

..I don't think ganondorf is going to sing a zelda song on the piano if that's what you're worried about

 

[Pavolink]

I'm wonder which setting of Zelda they're going to use as a base. Link to the Past? Zelda I (which wouldn't work as well IMO)? Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom?
My one hope is that they don't make Ganondorf a goofball at points in the movie like they did with Bowser. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about the movie but The Legend of Zelda needs a more serious tone than the Mario Movie.

It’s interesting, and maybe we’ll get an idea if we knew which Nintendo executive will be behind them. For example, if it’s Aonuma, I can see him making Skyward Sword.

But, if Nintendo push for a more recent approach, I can see something like BotW/Age of Calamity.

 

[WestEgg]

I'm wonder which setting of Zelda they're going to use as a base. Link to the Past? Zelda I (which wouldn't work as well IMO)? Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom?
My one hope is that they don't make Ganondorf a goofball at points in the movie like they did with Bowser. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about the movie but The Legend of Zelda needs a more serious tone than the Mario Movie.

Here’s how I would do it (which means it’s probably not how it will happen)

Do a two part Link to the Past movie. Link to the Past is basically the foundation of the whole series, Zelda in its most distilled form without it being too abstract like the NES titles. So you could structure a pretty faithful and satisfying story like this:

• Part 1. Set the backstory, show the rise of Agahnim, his manipulation of the King, the capture of the maidens, etc., before beginning the story proper with Link waking up from Zelda’s psychic message as his Uncle heads to the castle. You get an early exciting scene with the castle escape, after which Link is sent on the journey to find the Master Sword, having fun adventures as he explores Hyrule. Towards the end, he is able to claim it, but realizes Agahnim has taken Zelda from the Church, setting up for a climactic storming through Hyrule Castle and battle with Agahnim (and the tease of Ganon), as he apparently sacrifices Zelda and in defeat, draws Link into the Dark World, leaving things on an exciting cliff hanger.
• Part 2. With stakes now higher than ever, Link explores this strange mirror world corrupted by Ganon, with everything being familiar but alien, when he learns he must find the imprisoned maidens if he has any hopes of finding Zelda. We learn more about the Golden Land/Triforce, and Ganondorf’s backstory, and Link continues to grow stronger and more capable. Eventually he is able to find Zelda, and in a slight departure from the games, they realize Hyrule will never be safe while Ganon has the Triforce, and both work together to confront and defeat him (have Zelda critically would him with the silver arrows as Link delivers the killing blow). Link and Zelda recover the Triforce, peace returns to Hyrule, and the vultures rule the desert.

That’s how I would handle it, but I think realistically they’ll just go for Ocarina of Time in one movie, or a very lose adaptation of Zelda 1 with creative freedom to do what they want with it.

 

[WestEgg]

..I don't think ganondorf is going to sing a zelda song on the piano if that's what you're worried about

 

[ProteusRidley]

Would have preferred DreamWorks but okay.

 

[SirShorse]

Would have preferred DreamWorks but okay.

Well it's still a rumour as of now, but we'll see in the future I guess. Maybe this could be announced at the Shareholders meeting? Or would that be too soon?

 

[robertman2]

animated zelda

Ewwwwwww

 

[Pierceyonder]

I think, like Mario, this won't be based on any one particular Zelda game and will take elements from across the series to be its own thing. Ocarina seems like the logical thing to base most of it off of, if not BotW/TotK.

 

[Catsylvania]

This was bound happen to sooner rather than later after The Super Mario Bros. Movie performed so well. Certainly helps that it was actually pretty good.

The Legend of Zelda is a far more challenging project for a few reasons. Doubtful any of the games get adapted though. The Hyrule of Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom is probably the best place to start in terms of world building.

 

[Beanstar40]

Mario was great, im sure this will be fine

 

[Prophet64]

Reading about even the thought of a Zelda movie getting made gives me a bit of anxiety. Throwing Illumunation in the same sentence makes that feeling exponentially worse. I'll just write my own Zelda movie and try to ignore this one entirely.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

All of the fake trailer scripts people have been tweeting have given me permanent brain damage.

 

[Party Sklar]

Please Universal, give that shit to Dreamworks and let them do something interesting with it. I don't wanna see Link riding Epona to Walk This Way or some other overused 80s song

 

[Lucifer]

I'm wonder which setting of Zelda they're going to use as a base. Link to the Past? Zelda I (which wouldn't work as well IMO)? Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom?
My one hope is that they don't make Ganondorf a goofball at points in the movie like they did with Bowser. Don't get me wrong, I love everything about the movie but The Legend of Zelda needs a more serious tone than the Mario Movie.

I think it's either going to be its own thing or the BoTW setting.

Bowser was a goofball in many games so that fits the character, wouldn't be worried about Ganondorf getting the same treatment.

 

[Olinad]

Please Universal, give that shit to Dreamworks and let them do something interesting with it. I don't wanna see Link riding Epona to Walk This Way or some other overused 80s song

I definitely agree, but I'm not sure if Dreamworks are much better than Illumination at not overusing licensed music (see Shrek lol)

 

[MaitreWakou]

I definitely agree, but I'm not sure if Dreamworks are much better than Illumination at not overusing licensed music (see Shrek lol)

Shrek 2 "I need a Hero" climax is still to this day one of the best climax for an animated film though !

 

[Sturmgeist]

I have been waiting for this my entire life. Please don't ruin it.

 

[boodream]

I find it much harder to imagine a Zelda adaptation than a Mario adaptation. Mario has always been family-friendly, so the park and the animated film made total sense, even if there were concerns about the quality of the final product. I can't imagine TLOZ in an amusement park, or in a comedy. Especially since the series has taken on a new dimension, leaving less and less room for lightness. We'll see. I imagine Aonuma has an idea of the direction to take.

If this rumor is true, it's part of a partnership between Universal and Nintendo, not Illumination and Nintendo. So at this stage, it could just as easily be Illumination as Dreamworks, especially since Chris Meledandri, who is on the Nintendo board, oversees both studios. But even if it were Illumination, that wouldn't mean anything significant about the content of the project. That will depend on the writers chosen in consultation with Nintendo's approved guidelines. If they are as tightly controlled as with Mario, it's unlikely that Ganon will become a Despicable Me character no matter what.

Actually, the fact that the first collaboration between Illumination and Nintendo went so well might suggest that renewing this collaboration would be a good choice for a TLOZ adaptation: the supervision processes already exist, the people involved know each other, and there's a mutual basis for working together. Perhaps it's the best thing to do.

 

[Marce-chan]

I hope that Link doesn't talk in the film either and that's also one of its more original points, a silent co-protagonist. Also hope he gets the gender neutral look of BotW, maybe gets Hero tunic later as a reference to all franchise.
Zelda is very prominent and empowered like Peach is in the Mario movie.

I wonder if Zelda wouldn't be better served as a ~40 min short film tho.

Edit: thank God those rumblings awhile ago about a Zelda Netflix adaptation were false. Game of Thrones like would definitely work for Fire Emblem Three Houses but Zelda is not anything like that or those medieval adult violent series, no matter how boomer fans wanna force that into it.

 

[Heron]

I'd really prefer they don't make a Zelda movie but if they do then I'd prefer it be animated.

I think the sense of childhood adventure and whimsy which is core to the series would come over better in an animated film - and you don't have the issue of having to find gifted child actors who can handle both action, serious moments, and those lighter comedic moments. Instead you can use top VAs who can act as kids. You also dodge awkward and over-serious Lord of the Rings / standard genre-fantasy comparisons, and the various Zelda races will all work far better in animated form than in CGI in live action. Zelda without the Zoras, Rito and Gorons would be a very bland fantasy world indeed.

But ultimately, this is a series in which you're as likely on a moment-to-moment basis to be haggling with a baby who runs his own store or being shot out of a cannon while holding a chicken or cooking up a tasty salmon meuniere for some bratty bird as you are to be actively engaged in fighting the great evil. I think animation fits.

Seems like it's completely out of Illumination's wheelhouse, though. Zelda needs time to breath, it needs to let its settings have a genuine sense of place, it can't be a quip-a-second action-fest.

However, the care with which they made the Mario move (despite it being more in line with their previous work) suggests a level of talent at the company that could perhaps succeed at a wildly different tone if given the chance.

Anyway, I don't think they'll base it on any particular game and will just rely on the general mythos of Hyrule (just like each game does) but you can be sure that Zelda will be journeying with Link, whether in disguise or not. Can't have the movie called Zelda and have the main female character the series is named after fridged from the start like the games do, and you can't have the quiet main character just adventuring on his own.

 

[Ozeiyo]

after how much control Nintendo had over the mario film, I bet people are going to be understanding that this probably won't just be minions with a green hat.

Right?

Personally I can't wait to get Minions with a screw attack

 

[boodream]

Well, Nintendo is just a tiny not even western company, thank god Illumination get people to know Mario, they did all the work /s

 

[sanstea]

Link will obviously talk, there is no way around it. Nintendo is not in this to make small arthouse flicks.

The Ghibli comparisons were always misguided. Zelda is much more sillier than anything Ghibli has ever made so especially something consistently serious like Princess Mononoke is also a bad reference point. Not like either Nintendo or Ghibli would ever think about working together.

It's also gonna be obviously animated, but I'm really curious with which artstyle they are gonna go. The Zelda series has been always at the least anime stylized at its foundation, but there is no way an anime movie is gonna scratch a billion at the box office. So the biggest hurdle is gonna be to find a middle ground between western and eastern animation. I think BotW's artstyle is a middle ground sort of (with slight eastern dominant animation), but I doubt they will just go with anything we've seen before.

Story adaptions of any of the games also won't happen. It will be the same as they did with the Mario movie - take the fundamental lore and make something wholly original out of it.

 

[Prophet64]

a Zelda movie should be either live action or insanely avant garde cg animated to the point of making the Spiderverse movies look tame.

Link and Zelda should be teamed up for the most part and split at times too. Zelda doing her thing, but times where Link is pretty isolated would be good too and stretches where there is minimal dialogue. Link teaming up with regional helpers. Actual dangerous settings. Link should not be super slick hero able to stylishly pull off action hero bullshit. We should see him fumble and grow into that over time (possibly an entire trilogy) surviving by the skin of his teeth. He should be frightened and despair at times. He should fail and learn not just happen to be good at everything to push the plot along. His presence causes the good guys to prevail, but he isn't always the main reason.

Link should definitely talk but both doesn't say much in addition to other characters don't often let him get a word in edgewise.

 

[SpaceGodzilla]

Only ok with this if it's done under there moonlight label

 

[Gartooth]

Felt like this was only a matter of time after Mario did over a billion at the box office alongside the theme park rumors heating up about a Zelda land at Universal Orlando coming around 2027-ish.

I'm going to be very curious to see which art style they settle on and how they represent Hyrule and its characters. I think that's a lot harder for Zelda which plays fast and loose with its world every other game unlike Mario. So how do you appeal to people young and old for what a common understanding of Zelda looks and acts like. That goes for both the rumored movie and theme park.

 

[Clov]

I don't wanna see Link riding Epona to Walk This Way or some other overused 80s song

After seeing how the Mario movie turned out, it's almost certainly going to be this. Expect plenty of bad comedy and 80s needledrops!

 

[Pawprii]

Im having brain rot. All I could think of is zelda multiverse with the three timeline if this becomes successful

 

[ZephyrPhoenix]

expected. But the problem is how they'll handle it. Zelda isnt like Mario and is more mature themed in comparison.

 

[Earthbounder]

Please don't give it to Illumination.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

I really hope Zelda goes to DreamWorks and all this talk of Illumination is just preliminary assumptions.

Illumination surprised me with Mario, but Zelda is so utterly out of their wheelhouse as far as scale goes.

 

[big lantern ghost]

Occurred to me that if a theoretical Zelda movie had a Link’s Awakening remake sort of look and was more squarely aimed at a young crowd, the Illumination style comedy and storytelling would make more sense…

Either way, they are almost certainly going with Illumination lol. They just made a billion dollars together!

 

[Yoshifan31]

I have no idea why this rumor is credible. Since everyone is talking about it let’s consider that it will happen like the stinky horse game, Illumination will make a Zelda movie

Honestly, let’s just trust them at this point. The Mario movie was actually a good movie that was absolutely nothing like their Minions stuff (Despicable Me is lame wish fulfillment schlock). The criticisms of the Mario movie are all super easy targets because it’s easy to craft that narrative about a movie based on a videogame from Nintendo. “Paper thin story, it’s just references”. Well it’s mostly an action movie that follows the rules from the game, it’s not just “easter eggs”, it’s what literally happens in the Mario world. The narrative is just enough to bring some weight to the climactic moments, classic Isekai stuff without the modern bullshit. The people criticizing, I dunno, Mad Max for having no story are laughed at, it’s just not the point of the movie

Now Zelda is obviously very different in tone. Out of the other 3D animation studios people think something like Dreamworks is a better fit. That’s based on what, Puss in Boots 2 and the Dragons trilogy? Well guess what, Dreamworks was mostly comedy until they made HTTYD, I remember seeing the second one like 10 years ago and the “animation is for children, disney ftw” reviewers were saying that the movie was bad because it was more serious than the first. Anyway what this means is that every corny American animation studio can make anything when they try. Sony was all shovelware until Spiderverse. It sounds ridiculous but this means that Illumination can absolutely make the Zelda movie that fans dream about with the proper guidance from Nintendo, it worked for Mario after all. At the very least it will be a movie that won’t make the geeks mad (just like Mario, overall well received by the big fans), it won’t be something like Dragon Ball Evolution

 

[SirShorse]

I have no idea why this rumor is credible. Since everyone is talking about it let’s consider that it will happen like the stinky horse game, Illumination will make a Zelda movie

Honestly, let’s just trust them at this point.

Because they come from a reputable source? Look up "Jeff Sneider"

 

[WestEgg]

Hmmm

 

[Pavolink]

Interesting…

1. They don’t want leaks.
2. There’s no Zelda movie at all, and everything was an assumption.

 

[Lozjam]

I smell stinky horse. Universal is definitely teaming up with Nintendo for a Zelda film eventually.

 

[merp]

It's happening.

Calling it now.