The Legend of Zelda is a lot of things. The franchise is consistently one of the biggest names in gaming and one of its not-so-secret weapons is its variability. The promise of a new Zelda game comes with a thousand new potential gameplay elements, storytelling details, and evolutions of the format. In that variety, Zelda finds several compelling tones. While the franchise delivers several epic fantasies, it almost always packs away a few surprisingly terrifying moments. The feature film adaptation could gain a lot from doing the same.
Everyone seems to have a different image of how the first cinematic adaptation of The Legend of Zelda could look. Nintendo was the first in the live-action video game movie race, but early failure likely stood as an example. Most video game movies are terrible, but the current upswing in quality has led many to start hoping for them again. While many still despair at the idea of a Zelda movie, there’s reason to believe it could be better than it would have been a few decades ago.
The Legend of Zelda movie should capture the franchise’s spirit
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Director |
Wes Ball |
|---|---|
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Writer |
Derek Connolly |
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Producers |
Avi Arad, Shigeru Miyamoto |
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Distributor |
Sony Pictures Releasing |
The idea of making a movie out of The Legend of Zelda is not new. If comedian Adam Conover is to be believed, Nintendo canceled a slate of planned streaming adaptations of various properties, including Zelda, when someone at Netflix leaked their existence to the press. Nintendo planned an animated adaptation with Imagi Animation Studios in the 2000s, but the studio declared bankruptcy after the financial failure of its Astro Boy movie. That was 14 years ago, and despite some unsubstantiated rumors about Illumination taking a shot at the property, there have been no notable attempts since then. This has allowed fans to speculate wildly.
The consistent conversation around the idea mostly centers around which existing fantasy films it should borrow from most heavily. Studio Ghibli films and The Lord of the Rings series are the most common source material. Neither is a perfect fit, but the series has certainly offered oblique references to both works in the past. When Zelda does come to the screen, it’ll need more than notes from some other beloved movies to succeed. It can, however, take a few lessons. Both Princess Mononoke and The Two Towers are pretty fluid in their tone. If someone watched a few scenes out of context, they might have a hard time believing they come from the same film. The Legend of Zelda needs the same level of variety. It has to play with multiple distinct tones, unlike its Mario-centric sibling from Illumination. Horror is one of the most challenging elements to include, but any true incarnation of Zelda should have a bit of darkness.
Horror is part of The Legend of Zelda‘s history
In his excellent video essay, “Every Zelda is the Darkest Zelda,” Jacob Geller puts forth solid arguments for the “darkness” of every notable game in the Legend of Zelda franchise. Twilight Princess has its nightmarish Fused Shadow cutscene, featuring a near-biblical murder scene. Ocarina of Time has its ruined Castle Town, swarmed with ReDeads. Majora’s Mask has a mountain of horrific elements, starting with the opening cutscene and repeating through every apocalyptic reset. Geller’s thesis isn’t about horror. It’s that the reading of Zelda games as grim, haunting nightmares is a failure to engage with the art as it is. To focus on the curses and darkness is to exclude the central themes and theses of the story. Violence, terror, and death are not enough to sustain a narrative or establish a work as mature. Zelda titles aren’t horror games. But they do, almost universally, feature horror elements. There’s a reason for that.
The Legend of Zelda movie must find both sides of Zelda
In his project pitch for Princess Mononoke, the great Hayao Miyazaki once said,
We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there are more important things.
We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation.
The triumph of The Legend of Zelda often comes from an exploration of the darkness behind it. Link braves the endless challenges that come with heroism and maintains his courage to the very end. People die, monsters gain power, and the fate of the world is at stake. Through it all, Link still raises his sword. Hyrule can be dark and scary, but that’s just part of the journey. In every Zelda, people band together, find new strength, and, eventually, find the light in the darkness. Without that darkness, the light couldn’t shine as bright.
The Legend of Zelda will not be a horror film. It’ll be an epic fantasy with a few key action elements. At best, it’ll manage to capture humor, horror, and romance in its broad scope. The impulse for a family-friendly movie will likely be to eschew the darkness common to old-school Nintendo. Horror is an important part of Zelda games and the movie should reflect that.
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