With the news in 2023 that Nintendo would be working on an official Legend of Zelda movie in collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment, you can bet that we had to scoop our jaws from off the floor.
Even with the success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, a Zelda adaptation just didn’t seem all that feasible to us, and it sounds like Nintendo was of the same mind for many years. According to the Video Game History Hour podcast with ex-Nintendo “marketing mastermind” Gail Tilden (thanks, GamesRadar+), legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto would flat-out say “No” when approached about a potential Zelda movie.
In fact, not even the hypothetical involvement of Steven Spielberg was enough to convince him:
“People were always calling about doing a movie. You can imagine that the most common question is, you know, “We’re calling, we’d like to do a Zelda movie”. So the answer was always no. And so, you know, even I personally said, “Mr. Miyamoto, like, if Steven Spielberg himself wants to do a Zelda movie, what is the answer?” He said no. So that was it.
“The answer was always no.”
It makes us question exactly what occurred to change Nintendo’s mind on the matter. Was it the overwhelming success of the Mario movie? Or is it simply Nintendo’s desire to expand its reach with movies and theme parks? Regardless, we’re cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Zelda movie.
With Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad producing, the Zelda movie will be directed by Wes Ball, who most recently enjoyed critical success with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, a continuation of the reboot series previously helmed by Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves.