Well, excuuuse me, Princess: Legend of Zelda’s getting a movie. And, uh, excuse me, readers, for starting with a reference that is simultaneously hackneyed and, at this point, fairly obscure. Like, you’ve gotta be at least 40 right now to have first-hand memories of that terrible Zelda cartoon in the equally terrible show where Captain Lou Albano played Mario. Hell, you’ve gotta be at least 40 to have any idea who Captain Lou is. (Or at least a big NRBQ fan.)
Well, cast whatever memories you might have of that cartoon aside. The recently announced Zelda movie will be live-action (which, by today’s definition, means like 80% CGI with real people standing in front of a screen). It’s a collab between Sony and Nintendo, who are obviously and understandably emboldened by the phenomenal success of the Super Mario movie. Instead of doing another animated jawn with the hacks at Illumination, though, Nintendo is presumably aiming more for a Lord of the Rings-style adventure with their Zelda movie—and if there’s anything that’s resonated enough with the youths of the last 40 years to warrant Tolkien comparisons, it’s Zelda.
This is a suitably epic videogame series for a big screen Hollywood production. From the very first Legend of Zelda on the NES, Nintendo has used the series to push the boundaries of games, from how big they can be to how they can tell stories. It might be tricky to truly capture the feel and spirit of Zelda in a medium that’s more rigid in its storytelling, but with Nintendo on board, they will hopefully be able to moderate Hollywood’s worst instincts.
The movie will be directed by Wes Ball, who gave us The Maze Runner trilogy and the next Planet of the Apes movie.
Not much else is known about whatever this movie might turn out to be. We know it’s currently scheduled to exist, that Nintendo is coproducing, and that it will be live action (at least in the way that so many big budget movies are live action, aka barely at all). Hopefully it doesn’t have any montages set to a-Ha or “Holding Out for a Hero.”