Tears of the Kingdom team ‘interested’ in Zelda movie after Mario hit

Super Mario Bros. MovieThe movie has grossed more than $521.8 in the United States, and $1.1 billion worldwide. Nintendo can walk away from this win, but it’s only the beginning of 2023. As Mario enters its sixth weekend at the box office, there’s only one real threat to its complete hold on all-ages audiences: Tears of the Kingdom – The Legend of Zelda. It’s finally here: the long-anticipated Zelda 2 is now available and will be another huge hit for Nintendo.

Nintendo’s undeniable hold on the zeitgeist raises an important question: Where’s the Zelda movie?

At the tail end of Polygon’s big interview with Tears of KingdomWe were eager to hear from director Hidemaro Fubayashi and producer Eiji Anuma if there was any chance of a Zelda film, even a distant one. Answers were promising to those who hoped one day to be able put away the controller and soak up the glow of Hyrule.

“I am interested for sure,” Aonuma told Polygon through an interpreter. “But it’s not just me being interested in something that makes things happen, unfortunately!”

Aonuma might be talking about the perfectionist and visionary creator of Legend of Zelda, Shigeru Miyamoto. But there are many other titans needed to make a difference at Nintendo. On an investors call earlier in May, CEO Shuntaro Furukawa flagged to investors and the antsy world that the company isn’t looking to rush into any new film projects based on Nintendo characters. Asking about new revenue streams outside of games, it was inevitable that Furukawa would mention the film industry. Super Mario Bros. Movie didn’t even come up. If there’s a theatrical future for Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, it’s not happening in the near future. Aonuma still wants to see the film.

Although the 1993 Super Mario Bros.In the early 2000s, a constant stream of Zelda-related rumors circulated. A live action movie had left scorched ground worthy of Calamity. Nintendo was also reluctant to allow its characters appear in any other form of media. Netflix was said to be developing a Zelda TV show, but this wasn’t confirmed. The Wall Street Journal leaked the information in 2015. Adam Ruins AllAdam Conover, the host of The Serf Times podcast in 2021 has provided a strangely convincing proof. In a 2021 episode of The Serf Times podcast, Conover explained that, during his time at CollegeHumor, he was recruited to work on a claymation version of StarFox — which apparently imploded after the Netflix Zelda project leak.

Press for Super Mario Bros. Movie earlier this year, Miyamoto was also asked about the company’s interests in adaptations, and if Illumination, the company behind the CG animated film, would spearhead future projects. “There’s nothing I can really comment on at the moment,” he said. “But we started with the fact that we have a shared vision of creation, so I think there’ll be opportunities in the future.”

Aonuma is keen to see Zelda in film form, but there are no current plans to do so. Super Mario Bros. Movie — chalk it up to Nintendo’s protectiveness and perfectionism. However, Tears of Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi also told Polygon that there is a larger entity — beyond creators, beyond CEOs — who “make things happen,” to use Aonuma’s words.

“Maybe the voices of the fans are what’s important here!” Fujibayashi said.