We have only received small tips about The Legend of Zelda movie adaptation, but most gaming fans can probably agree that it will be a pretty significant project. After all, The Legend of Zelda is one of the most enduring video game franchises of all time, and any live-action film based on it must do it justice. This goes double for the first ever live action Zelda film.
About this The Legend of Zelda adaptations were made, say, fifteen years ago, there might be more cause for concern, but the 2020s have seen a surprising amount of good film and television adaptations of video games. There are projects that The last of us and Fall-outwhich have dominated the television landscape by appealing to more than just fans of the respective IPs, but also more family-friendly pieces such as The Super Mario Movieand more recently, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. The success of these films is even more impressive than anything like this The last of us because, unlike Naughty Dog's groundbreaking post-apocalypse series, Mario doesn't have much in the way of storytelling to dig into. This means that Super Mario adaptations can be more flexible and less strict with certain elements of plot and tone, but this approach does not work for all properties.
The Legend of Zelda movie would be wise to make use of recurring characters, with an asterisk attached
While returning characters from the Legend of Zelda franchise would be a welcome addition to the upcoming film, caution would serve the film best.
The Super Mario movies can all be low-stakes fluff, but the Zelda movie can't
The main reason why Super Mario works well as a film despite not having much of an established plot is pretty obvious: the iconic but loosely defined character of Super Mario the world lends itself to a lot of improvisation and creativity in an adaptation. Mario doesn't even have a voice, so you could theoretically have anyone play him—even Chris Pratt, for whatever reason.
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That's why Super Mario movies are such fun, light-hearted romps: they don't need to stick to complex stories or narratives, just the most recognizable tropes and symbols of the ubiquitous Super Mario IP. Not only is it enough for Super Mario movies to focus on references, fluff, and low-stakes humor, it's actually beneficial. One only has to look at the infamous 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie to see how damaging it can be to try to “flesh out” it Mario universe, or place it in the context of the real world.
Zelda certainly has its own traditions and iconography, but most of it is quite different from what is seen in Mario game. Mario Staples like Fire Flowers and Red Mushrooms exist almost exclusively to spice up and change gameplay, while something like the Triforce or Master Sword play a crucial role in narrative Zelda.
In other words, The Legend of Zeldawhile it doesn't exhibit Naughty Dog or BioWare levels of mature, cinematic storytelling, it's significantly more serious and complex than anything like it Super Mario. At the end of the day, the stories about Super Mario games are little more than formalities to facilitate gameplay, while the stories of Zelda games are often intimately linked to their gameplay, structure and tone. Thus Zelda the movie has to contend with actual action, stakes, lore, and the like, incorporating core series elements in a coherent and engaging way. It's not as free to be frivolous.
This track with what Zelda said film director Wes Ball back in 2024, before the film was announced. When describing the type of Zelda film he would like to create, he said it would be “something serious and cool, but fun and whimsical.”
The Legend of Zelda movie will probably have to take a lot of creative liberties
Even with all that said, the Zelda film adaptation is in a curious position when it comes to adaptations. There is technically an overall The Legend of Zelda story, with individual entries connecting to each other through sometimes convoluted and indirect means, but each story is mostly self-contained. Also, they are often variations of a familiar plot with Link, Zelda and Ganon, so the story of Zelda film can only be another interpretation of this core concept. This might actually be the least creatively restrictive approach, as the filmmakers wouldn't have to include key points, characters, or world elements from a specific entry, but could do so if they wanted to. It can be like Uncharted film, which mixes together elements from all four main lines Uncharted game.
Even if Zelda film would adapt a specific Zelda title (it has been speculated that it will follow Breath of the Wilds story, mostly due to Benjamin Evan Ainsworth's Link costume), it will still face some major hurdles in media translation. For example, will Link speak? The voiceless protagonist trope works in a video game, but not so much in a movie. This kind of problem was easily solved in the silly and cartoonish Super Mario movies, but solve them in Zelda the movie can be more complicated.
