Legend of Zelda movie – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today. Tue, 18 Nov 2025 02:59:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/05/en_rocket_1024.png?w=32 Legend of Zelda movie – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com 32 32 176746664 Live-action Legend of Zelda movie releases first on-set, in-costume images【Photos】 https://soranews24.com/2025/11/18/live-action-legend-of-zelda-movie-releases-first-on-set-in-costume-images%e3%80%90photos%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2025/11/18/live-action-legend-of-zelda-movie-releases-first-on-set-in-costume-images%e3%80%90photos%e3%80%91/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2025 03:00:33 +0000 https://soranews24.com/?p=720456 
Filming is underway for Nintendo’s first live-action movie in more than 30 years.
The Legend of Zelda live-action movie is one of those things that seems hard to believe is actually happening. Sure, video game-to-movie adaptations are all the rage recently, and the animated Super Mario Bros. Movie did rake in over a billion dollars at the box office in 2023. But the one and only time Nintendo greenlit a live-action theatrical feature based on one of its games they ended up with 1993’s Super Mario Bros., which was such an unpopular failure that it basically convinced Nintendo to take a 30-year break from movie-making. Zelda itself doesn’t have a particularly impressive adaptation track record either, as even though the U.S.-produced Zelda cartoon segments for the Super Mario Bros. Super Show have gone on to provide fodder for meme posting in the Internet era, they earned few genuine fans during their broadcast run in 1989.
In other words, it’s going to take actual on-set photos to convince a lot of people that the live-action Zelda movie is real…and now those are exactly what we have, thanks to none other than Zelda series creator Shigeru Miyamoto himself.
“This is Miyamoto,” tweeted the legendary game designer, using his customary greeting when at the helm of Nintendo’s official Twitter account, followed by “Filming is underway for the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda in a lush, natural setting, with Bo Bragason-san who will play Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth-san who will play Link.”
This is Miyamoto. Filming is underway for the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda in a lush, natural setting, with Bo Bragason-san who will play Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth-san who will play Link (1/2). pic.twitter.com/fbadNgaDqY
— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) November 17, 2025
The released stills show Bragason and Ainsworth in the midst of ranging across the wilds of Hyrule, which will be played by the New Zealand countryside. Both are sporting the pointy elf-like ears characteristic of the games’ Hylian people, and the costuming looks great too, walking that tightrope of still looking stylized enough to fit within the franchise’s established aesthetics but without looking too brand-new or impractical that it makes the characters look like they’re cosplaying.
No story details have been revealed yet, but the color of Zelda’s attire immediately brings to mind the shade of blue used in many motifs for Breath of the Wild, the first game in the Zedla franchise for the Nintendo Switch, and that game’s environment, featuring vast undeveloped areas between small villages, also meshes with what we can see in the backgrounds of the stills shared by Miyamoto. Adapting 2017’s Breath of the Wild would also make sense from a storytelling standpoint, as in addition to having a more fleshed-out story and cast of characters than many earlier games in the series, it’s also the most recent major entry point to the franchise for many fans, as 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, and before that you have to go all the way back to 2011’s Skyward Sword for the next most-recent Zelda narrative entry point. Breath of the Wild being one of the few Zelda games with a direct sequel also leaves open an easy path to making a follow-up movie as well.
All that said, the Zelda video game franchise has never been afraid of tossing out everything that came before in terms of story and starting all over again, so it’s possible that the movie will be telling its own original tale while retaining a lot of the look and tone of Breath of the Wild by nature of that being what’s most strongly associated with the series at this point in its history.
“Filming is on track for the film’s release on May 7, 2027. It will take a while until the release, so we would be grateful if you would wait patiently and look forward to it,” added Miyamoto in a later tweet, and while it might be hard for fans to be “patient” in the sense of not feeling anxious to know more, it’s a pretty sure bet that they’ll be very willing to head to the theater on the movie’s release date.
Source, images: Twitter/@Nintendo
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]]> https://soranews24.com/2025/11/18/live-action-legend-of-zelda-movie-releases-first-on-set-in-costume-images%e3%80%90photos%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 720456 lz 1 Live-action Legend of Zelda movie reveals cast for roles of Link and Zelda https://soranews24.com/2025/07/17/live-action-legend-of-zelda-movie-reveals-cast-for-roles-of-link-and-zelda/ https://soranews24.com/2025/07/17/live-action-legend-of-zelda-movie-reveals-cast-for-roles-of-link-and-zelda/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2025 13:00:34 +0000 https://soranews24.com/?p=707551 
Nintendo franchise’s next movie project has found its leads.
After 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie made well over a billion dollars at the box office, it was inevitable that Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda would be making the leap from video game screens to theater ones as well. The big surprise, though, is that unlike the CGI animated Super Mario Bros. Movie, the Zelda movie is going to be live-action.
Now, more than a year and a half after the project was first announced, Nintendo has finally revealed who’ll be playing the live-action Princess Zelda and series protagonist Link.
This is Miyamoto. I am pleased to announce that for the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda, Zelda will be played by Bo Bragason-san, and Link by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth-san. I am very much looking forward to seeing both of them on the big screen. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/KA5XW3lwul
— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) July 16, 2025
The news came in Nintendo’s nonchalant fashion, with Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto first letting everyone know he’d grabbed the handle of the company’s official Twitter account before announcing Bo Bragson and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as the movie’s stars.
The British Bragson’s most recent credits include roles in U.K. TV series Renegade Nell and The Jetty and horror-comedy film The Radleys, and she also has some video game-related work on her resume from being the motion capture actress for child-age Luna in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, the CGI animated companion piece to the Final Fantasy XV video game. Fellow Brit Ainsworth’s highest-profile role to date is as the voice of Pinocchio in Disney’s 2022 live-action remake of its animated classic.
The choice of largely unknown performers runs almost entirely counter to the casting decisions for the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which went with Hollywood A-listers such as Chris Pratt and Jack Black to voice its characters, resulting in a measure of early backlash from Mario franchise fans who were upset at what they saw as a dilution of the characters’ existing personas. Ultimately that didn’t do much to hurt the Super Mario Bros. Movie’s box office success or reviews, but it’s possible that since, by nature of being live-action, the Zelda movie’s characters will neither sound nor look just like they do in the games, Nintendo wants to go with actors whose presence won’t overshadow the character they’re portraying.
It’s also worth noting that the movie’s leads are both very young, with Bragson’s age listed as either 20 or 21 and Ainsworth only 16 years old. With Zelda and Link generally looking like young adults in the series most recent games, Bragson and Ainsworth seem to be just old enough to pull off the roles, and could be a sign the Zelda movie’s producers are thinking long-term about the possibility of sequels if it’s a hit.
▼ A commenter comparison of the live-action Zelda and Link to their modern established appearances
— Juve Dc (@Juvelink88) July 16, 2025
The promotional photos included in Nintendo’s announcement are a bit of an odd choice, in that they show Bragson and Ainsworth in what could be fantasy-genre costumes and settings (Bragson is even wearing something in the shade of blue Zelda recently favors in the games), which invites comparison to the game’s visuals, and perhaps criticism for straying too far from the source-material designs. However, with the live-action Zelda movie not scheduled for release until May of 2027, it’s unlikely that filming has begun yet, and so we’ll probably have to wait at least a little longer for the first in-costume photos of the cast.
Source: Twitter/@Nintendo
Featured image: Twitter/@Nintendo
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