Nintendo announces Live-Action The Legend of Zelda Movie

After years of speculations,anticipations, fake leaks, and April Fools Jokes, Nintendo has finally officially announced that a live-action movie based on The Legend of Zelda is in development.

Nintendo confirmed this at their Japanese site. The movie will be produced by Shigeru Miyamoto himself (the creator of the Zelda series) and Avi Arad – who has worked on big hit movies like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Iron Man, and more.

The director will be Wes Ball, probably best known for producing the Maze Runner trilogy.

But one of the probably most bizarre things about this is that Sony, one of Nintendo’s biggest rival companies, will partly be financing the film with Nintendo. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. will also be responsible for the film’s worldwide distribution at release.

Following is the full official announcement from Nintendo:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto Minami-ku; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter) today announced that it will develop a live-action film of The Legend of Zelda.

The film will be produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, Representative Director and Fellow of Nintendo and Avi Arad, Chairman of Arad Productions Inc., who has produced many mega hit films.

The film will be produced by Nintendo and Arad Productions Inc., and directed by Wes Ball. The film will be co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., with more than 50% financed by Nintendo. The theatrical distribution of the film will be done worldwide by Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.

The announcement continues:

By producing visual contents of Nintendo IP by itself, Nintendo is creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built, through different means apart from its dedicated game consoles.

By getting deeply involved in the movie production with the aim to put smiles on everyone’s faces through entertainment, Nintendo will continue its efforts to produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible.

Miyamoto himself revealed on X(former Twitter) that he has been working on the movie for many years, and they have finally started the development.

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. [2]https://t.co/2H9lzzS5Pv

— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) November 7, 2023

It has not yet been disclosed when the movie will be released. Considering that the development of the movie has only recently started, it is probable that we will have to wait for a few years before we can watch Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf on the big screen.