Nintendo’s first foray into the film industry has been a massive success, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie has quickly become one of the most successful animated movies of all time. Because of that, it’s likely that Nintendo is now looking towards its massive vault of iconic franchises to see which others have movie potential, and it seems to have settled on making The Legend of Zelda its next big project.
This is according to reputable Hollywood insider Jeff Sneider, who has claimed in a recent episode of The Hot Mic Podcast (thanks Consequence) that Nintendo and Universal Pictures are close to agreeing a “big deal” for a movie based on The Legend of Zelda. Of course, Universal Pictures own Illumination, the animation studio behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie, so the two working together again after their recent success is probably the least surprising thing you’ll hear all week.
“I’m told that Universal is, in fact, closing a “big deal” with the Nintendo corporation for The Legend of Zelda,” says Sneider. “Zelda is looking like the next big Illumination Nintendo franchise, which again, I think we were all sort of expecting, but yeah, I’m told that is happening…”
Sneider also claims that Universal is being made to pay “a pretty penny” for The Legend of Zelda because Nintendo now “knows its worth” after the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. No further details about the movie were shared, but Sneider believes that Nintendo and Universal is going to take their time with the project to get it right, and that there might be a little bit more leeway with Link’s character since he’s pretty much a blank slate of a character.
As Sneider points out, the success of Mario was always going to lead to more Nintendo movie adaptations, something that Shigeru Miyamoto himself has already confirmed since the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. I guess it’s a little disappointing that Nintendo is potentially going with Illumination again, especially with a franchise like Zelda that has a diverse range of art styles to draw inspiration from, but it’s already proven to be a safe pair of hands and Nintendo probably isn’t in the strongest position to start experimenting with different animation studios.
From what we’ve seen already, we can probably assume that a Zelda movie will adapt the first game in some way, even if fans really want adaptations of more beloved titles like Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild. It sounds like we’ll have to wait a while to see what Nintendo plans are though, so let’s just keep our fingers crossed that Illumination gets this one right as well. Just keep Chris Pratt away from Link and you’re off to a good start.