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NEWS: Live-Action Zelda Movie Begins Filming, Presents 3 Stills


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Motagij



Joined: 25 Oct 2025
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 10:26 am Reply with quote
They both look really, really good.
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Kougeru



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 11:09 am Reply with quote
They really should cancel this. If it needed to exist at all, it should've been CG. But the entire thing goes against the concept of "The Legend of Zelda" and Link as a whole. The entire reason he is named "Link" is because he's the link between the game and the player. Miyamoto's own words. He cannot be a link if he's literally someone else. The actor is not the viewer. It's a detached experience by nature. It shouldn't exist.
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FishLion
Crazy Fangirl



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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 11:45 am Reply with quote
You really think people don't identify with movie protagonists or feel a "link" to them?

Sure it's different than video games but I'm pretty sure many people will still see a young hero going on a journey and imagine themselves in his place, this is the strangest reason I have ever seen not to make a movie.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 12:11 pm Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
They really should cancel this. If it needed to exist at all, it should've been CG. But the entire thing goes against the concept of "The Legend of Zelda" and Link as a whole. The entire reason he is named "Link" is because he's the link between the game and the player. Miyamoto's own words. He cannot be a link if he's literally someone else. The actor is not the viewer. It's a detached experience by nature. It shouldn't exist.

Breaking news: Different forms of media can and do adapt the same basic concepts in different ways. Film at 11.
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 12:57 pm Reply with quote
I still would have preferred animation. But so far that looks nice.

I suppose, given that there are different Links and Zelda's, maybe live-action is a better course... because you can recast different actors for every story, whereas while you can make changes in animation, audiences would more question why they are changing the designs?

Like would a Toon-Link adaptation require a Toon Link?

Yeah, fans would love altering animation styles, but this then makes the productions and predictability of success unpredictable and just as with the games, there'd be divisiveness.

Live-action and sticking to realism makes this less complicated in the long run.
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Matros



Joined: 22 Feb 2021
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
They really should cancel this. If it needed to exist at all, it should've been CG. But the entire thing goes against the concept of "The Legend of Zelda" and Link as a whole. The entire reason he is named "Link" is because he's the link between the game and the player. Miyamoto's own words. He cannot be a link if he's literally someone else. The actor is not the viewer. It's a detached experience by nature. It shouldn't exist.


Funny to quote Miyamoto of all people considering he's the one who pushed for this movie.
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SaiyanHeretic



Joined: 15 Aug 2025
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 2:19 pm Reply with quote
I have nothing in particular to say about the actors. They look fine. Determining whether or not they were well-cast will have to wait until we actually see their acting.

But I've always thought it was weird that this project is a live-action movie. TLOZ games never really have a lot of story, as they're mostly about the feeling and atmosphere of being on an adventure. Animation excels at conveying vibes. As for live-action, well, there's a reason nobody has really been able to pull off the traditional fantasy adventure since Lord of the Rings (even Peter Jackson himself failed to recapture that magic in The Hobbit trilogy).

Personally, I would have gone with the prestige miniseries format, so each place Link (and presumably Zelda) goes has room to breathe and be explored, but I can also see why Nintendo wouldn't be interested in bargaining for distribution rights with a streaming platform.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 4:46 pm Reply with quote
I wonder if people will like this or not, I'm not referring whether it will be good as I feel that is redundant. The Mario movie seems to be mostly liked, however that was mostly seen by children, whereas this will pull in more adults. I can see it going in either extremes. Are there any particular elements that might sway people one way or another?
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FanGamer24



Joined: 10 Apr 2024
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 4:47 pm Reply with quote
While animation would have been better if any Nintendo IP was going to get the live action treatment, It would probably be Zelda and maybe Metroid.
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ZelosZoidberg



Joined: 23 May 2018
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 9:44 pm Reply with quote
FanGamer24 wrote:
While animation would have been better if any Nintendo IP was going to get the live action treatment, It would probably be Zelda and maybe Metroid.
Metroid being Live-Action is a no-brainier. Zelda on the other hand can go either way. I could see a Zelda being 2d animated by Genndy Tartakovsky being great (Wind Waker and Samrai Jack are close in style, the smoke effects being almost 1:1 match). At the least they got the location setting right. New Zealand is a gold mine for these type of movies. I will reserve judgment until the final product arrives but the best case scenario is that it does not kill off Zelda as a being something else as a video game.
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ZiharkXVI



Joined: 29 Jan 2009
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 10:24 pm Reply with quote
They look like Link and Zelda. But this isnt telling me much more than that. Zelda isnt like LOTR with an epic book trilogy and a genius author to give our characters direction. Its a video game series that is not really well connected across the various games, many of which have the barest minimum of story. The writing staff are hopefully excellent. My fear is it will be a boring collection of "Zelda classic shots" that will look good on camera, but empty of any cohesion or great storytelling.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 11:34 pm Reply with quote
Zelda has a BOTW style outfit while Link looks like a faded version of his iconic look. I'm really curious what kind of take they're going for with this movie, though Impa is in it so that's a win.

I hope they don't try hard to make this LOTR and some kind of epic fantasy that they lose sight of what people love about this franchise.
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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 11:53 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, those are definitely Link and Zelda. Kinda interesting they kept Link's classic color scheme while Zelda has her BOTW/TOTK look. Now I wanna know who plays Ganondorf. And we need a gag with the deadliness of Hylian chickens.

Now to await an inevitable Donkey Kong spin-off from the Mario movies and Metroid continuing to not be adapted because that's an exercise in futility
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ZiharkXVI



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PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 12:31 am Reply with quote
MFrontier wrote:
Zelda has a BOTW style outfit while Link looks like a faded version of his iconic look. I'm really curious what kind of take they're going for with this movie, though Impa is in it so that's a win.

I hope they don't try hard to make this LOTR and some kind of epic fantasy that they lose sight of what people love about this franchise.

I'm curious what you think it is that the people love about this series. Part of the reason I think a Zelda movie will be so hard is i don't think there is a consensus about what the story should be. I kind of like epic good versus evil fantasy, and if Zelda leaned into that it would be good to me...
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Dr. Wily



Joined: 09 Nov 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 12:10 pm Reply with quote
I mean it's they're very pretty photos and people, but I feel like I have to see it in motion or at least see some monster and/or Ganondorf designs before I can make any real judgments.

Otherwise I'll just have to echo what I saw someone else on the internet say and say that it could look like two very nerdy people's cosplay wedding photos.

Kougeru wrote:
They really should cancel this. If it needed to exist at all, it should've been CG. But the entire thing goes against the concept of "The Legend of Zelda" and Link as a whole. The entire reason he is named "Link" is because he's the link between the game and the player. Miyamoto's own words. He cannot be a link if he's literally someone else. The actor is not the viewer. It's a detached experience by nature. It shouldn't exist.


I disagree with most of your post but I will agree that live action is the wrong move for this game (or probably most games, aside from the ones that were clearly designed from the ground up to have regular live-action people play roles). Zelda characters (well, the Hylians and Gerudos) are mostly human aside from pointy ears but they have a lot of exaggerated features that aren't human at all, and they live in a world with a lot of crazy creatures that are already gonna be CGI so why not just commit to the bit and do a whole animated movie?

FishLion wrote:
You really think people don't identify with movie protagonists or feel a "link" to them?

Sure it's different than video games but I'm pretty sure many people will still see a young hero going on a journey and imagine themselves in his place, this is the strangest reason I have ever seen not to make a movie.


Yeah, one could argue that they've been moving away from the classic "link to the player" meaning since they stopped letting you name your character in Breath Of The Wild. I mean, I think that's pedantic, but you could argue that.
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