Legend Of Zelda Is “Dying For A Cinematic Treatment,” Director Says

Nintendo is teaming up with Sony and Marvel producer Avi Arad for a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie. Director Wes Ball recently told Variety that Zelda is one of the last “untapped properties” that is ripe for a movie and that he’s excited to get to work on the film.

“I can’t say a lot about it, but Zelda is hugely important to me. It’s up there with Star Wars for me in terms of what shaped me as a kid,” Ball said. “Talking about adventure? That’s the thing. It’s like one of the last untapped properties that is dying for a cinematic treatment. But we’ll see what happens.”

Zelda has a dedicated and passionate fanbase, and Ball knows something about that having previously directed the Maze Runner movies. He said he got a “taste” of the “expectation game” with those films, and now he’s feeling it again directing Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. For Zelda, though, he might be facing the highest expectations of his career.

“Obviously you can’t have that while you’re making a thousand decisions a day. You ingest it and hopefully you make good choices along the way in a string of thousands and thousands of choices that you make,” he said. “And so I count myself as a gigantic fan, and I trust that in a way as we move forward, and hopefully it lines up with other people that want to see the same thing.”

Ball was recently asked what his favorite Zelda game of all time is. He diplomatically and strategically chose to not reply, as doing so might have led the fanbase to conclusions about the film.

Ball recently talked about lessons he’s applying to his upcoming Zelda movie. Additionally, the director has previously expressed that the film has “got to feel like something real.” This comes after Ball mentioned swinging for live-action Hayao Miyazaki aesthetics, known for co-founding Studio Ghibli.

There is no release date yet for the Zelda movie, nor have any casting announcements been made yet. Meanwhile, Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes premieres in theaters today, May 10. For more, check out GameSpot’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes review.

In other Nintendo news, a Switch 2 console–or whatever it may be called–is in the works and could launch in 2025. For more, check out everything we know about Switch 2.