Entertainment
Forget ‘Ocarina of Time’, Nintendo’s ‘Zelda’ Movie Needs to Pull From a Different Game
The cast of the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie is finally starting to take shape, and Nintendo is making it increasingly difficult not to look toward one game in particular. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Bo Bragason are already set to lead the movie as Link and Zelda, respectively, while Uli Latukefu will play Ganondorf. Yvonne Strahovski and Sam Neill have also joined the cast in roles that remain undisclosed. We already know the movie is telling an original narrative, so expecting a direct adaptation of Ocarina of Time would be setting ourselves up for disappointment. That doesn’t mean Nintendo won’t pull heavily from the games that defined Hyrule on its way to creating something new. In fact, the cast makes Ocarina of Time feel like an increasingly obvious source of inspiration.
And if Ocarina of Time is one of the movie’s biggest influences, that’s a pretty great place to start. Nearly three decades later, it still contains so much of what audiences picture when they think of The Legend of Zelda, and its story has the bones of an incredible fantasy adventure. But Nintendo doesn’t have to take everything from the same game. When it comes to Latukefu’s Ganondorf, there’s another version of the character that would give the movie something Ocarina of Time can’t. The Wind Waker gave Ganondorf a perspective, and that’s exactly what his live-action debut needs.
‘Ocarina of Time’ Has Everything Nintendo Needs To Build a ‘Zelda’ Movie
There’s a reason Ocarina of Time remains such an obvious point of reference nearly three decades after its release. It contains almost everything a general audience associates with The Legend of Zelda: Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, the Triforce, the Master Sword, Hyrule Castle, and a collection of wildly different peoples and places that make the kingdom feel enormous. More importantly, its basic conflict gives Nintendo plenty to borrow without actually adapting the game. Link’s journey begins small. He’s a child leaving Kokiri Forest for the first time, only to become wrapped up in Zelda’s suspicions about Ganondorf and a race to protect Hyrule. The two young heroes ultimately make the catastrophic mistake that gives Ganondorf exactly the opportunity he needs. Link draws the Master Sword and awakens seven years later to discover Ganondorf won. Tell me that isn’t a second-act turn made for a movie theater.
Nintendo obviously doesn’t need to reproduce that progression beat for beat, especially if the goal is to create a new story. Nobody needs to watch Link methodically complete every dungeon, and trying to cram an entire Zelda game onto the screen would be a fantastic way to make the movie feel like someone uploaded a playthrough to IMAX. What Ocarina of Time offers instead is a blueprint for how to introduce Hyrule, establish Link and Zelda as young heroes, and make Ganondorf feel like an overwhelming threat before either of them is ready to face him. Even the mystery castings make that possibility interesting. Strahovski has the presence for an Impa-like role, while Neill could naturally fit into Hyrule’s older generation as its king, Rauru, or another mentor figure. Those guesses could be completely wrong (and probably are, if I’m being honest), but the larger point is that an original narrative still gives Nintendo the freedom to assemble recognizable pieces from across the franchise. There’s just one place where another Zelda game has a much better piece to borrow.
‘The Wind Waker’ Gave Ganondorf the Story a Movie Actually Needs
Ocarina of Time establishes so much of what has become inseparable from Ganondorf: the Gerudo king, his pursuit of the Triforce, his conquest of Hyrule, and ultimately his transformation into Ganon. He’s threatening before Link has any hope of challenging him, and the adult portion of the game shows exactly what happens when the hero fails to stop him. But The Wind Waker does something Ocarina of Time never really needed to do by asking Ganondorf to explain himself. By the time Link encounters Ganondorf in The Wind Waker, the Hyrule he once coveted has been buried beneath an ocean. Near the end of the game, Ganondorf remembers the harsh winds of the Gerudo desert and contrasts them with the winds that blew across Hyrule. Eventually, he admits that he coveted that wind. It’s one of the best Ganondorf scenes Nintendo has ever written because it doesn’t suddenly pretend he was right. He’s still a tyrant. Instead, The Wind Waker gives him something far more valuable to a movie: a perspective. His desire for Hyrule becomes rooted in resentment, envy, and the circumstances that shaped him instead of simply wanting ultimate power because the story needs a villain.
That’s what Latukefu’s Ganondorf needs. His physicality already does plenty of the work. Put him opposite Ainsworth’s young Link, and Ganondorf should look like an impossible opponent before Nintendo adds a single visual effect. The harder job is making audiences understand the man underneath that threat. A video game can rely on decades of iconography and the promise of an enormous final boss. A movie needs a character who can carry actual scenes. Let Ganondorf interact with Zelda and the rulers of Hyrule. Show us the Gerudo and what his kingdom looks like compared to the one he wants to conquer. Give Latukefu the opportunity to communicate what Ganondorf sees when he looks at Hyrule and why possessing it matters to him.
Nintendo doesn’t need to copy The Wind Waker wholesale. In fact, an original narrative gives it an even better opportunity. It can take the resentment Ganondorf eventually articulates in The Wind Waker and show us what that resentment looks like before it consumes him. Eventually, give us Ganon. Watching Latukefu transform into the monster that has haunted Hyrule across generations could be an incredible payoff. But Ganon is the monster. Ganondorf is the character. Nintendo is already creating a new Legend of Zelda, which means it doesn’t have to choose a single game to adapt. It can take the sweeping adventure and iconic Hyrule of Ocarina of Time, then borrow the complexity The Wind Waker finally gave its greatest villain. If Nintendo is going to rearrange familiar pieces to tell a new legend, Ganondorf deserves to be one of them.
- Release Date
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May 7, 2027
- Writers
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Derek Connolly
- Producers
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Shigeru Miyamoto, Avi Arad
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Benjamin Evan Ainsworth
Link
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Bo Bragason
Princess Zelda
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