It appears that rumor about a Legend of Zelda movie being in the works with Universal and Nintendo was just that: a rumor.
This new information was elucidated by non-other than Illumination chief Chris Meledandri, which is about as authoritative as it gets on this matter. As Meledandri told The Wrap,
“I don’t know where that [rumor] came from […] I mean I can understand how people would surmise all sorts of things because obviously, we’ve had a great experience working together. My relationship with Nintendo now includes being on their board of directors, so I understand how people can surmise these things. But in terms of the specifics, that was just something that I’ve been hearing lots of reports. This is just about what’s next between Nintendo and Illumination.”
Earlier this year, Illumination came out with the Nintendo-co-produced film The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which ushered in more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Given the movie’s monumental success, it’s no wonder the rumor — first reported by Hollywood insider Jeff Sneider — would have surfaced for a Zelda film.
Illumination’s parent company, Universal, is responsible for launching multiple theme parks based on the video game giant, Super Nintendo World. This simple fact, along with Meledandri’s status as a member of Nintendo’s board of directors, makes it seem inevitable that more adaptations will eventually surface in the future.
This whole story is somewhat reminiscent, to me, of the time Nintendo reportedly canceled a planned Zelda show for Netflix in response to a leak. Per Nintendo Life, comedian Adam Conover claimed in an interview that he was involved with creating a stop-motion animation-based Star Fox series for the streaming platform, inspired by a CollegeHumor sketch. But when the Zelda series leak happened, Conover said Nintendo panicked and canned both TV show projects. Then-Nintendo President Satoru Iwata even claimed the Zelda series reports were false at the time.
