With reports stating that Universal and Nintendo are closing in on a deal for an adaptation of The Legend of Zelda, the studios should not expect as easy a project as The Super Mario Bros. Movie. A report by Jeff Sneider (via THE HOT MIC) indicates that Universal is closing in on a deal with Nintendo to bring a Zelda film adaptation to life via Illumination, though this is still just a rumor at this point. After the runaway success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it is not difficult to see why Universal would attempt to secure more Nintendo IPs as potential film franchises.
While this was expected given that The Super Mario Bros. Movie has earned over $1.3 billion worldwide, a Legend of Zelda movie may not be as simple as crafting a Mario movie. While The Super Mario Bros. Movie likely was not an easy task and still required a lot of hard work from the cast and crew, the nature of the Mario franchise enabled relative freedom when crafting an original story. However, The Legend of Zelda has a few different factors that would prove it to be much more difficult to translate to film, despite also having a wealth of potential should the studios get it right.
10 The Legend Of Zelda Games Are Harder To Adapt Than Mario
Firstly, The Legend of Zelda franchise’s base nature means it is harder to adapt than Mario. For the most part, the stories of each Mario game are fairly simple: Bowser kidnaps Peach leading Mario on a journey to save her. While the likes of Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario Odyssey include twists in gameplay to keep the long-running series fresh, the core concept has never really changed. As a result, The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s success came from its simple story, allowing Illumination to focus on crafting a fun, crowd-pleasing movie full of references, Easter eggs, and familiarity without having to worry about crafting a compelling story.
Conversely, The Legend of Zelda is a much more expansive franchise. Recent installments in the franchise such as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom saw a complete overhaul in the series’ gameplay, making a significant change in a way the Mario franchise is yet to do. Aside from this though, every single Zelda game has a complex story. From different characters, timelines, settings, and MacGuffins, the Legend of Zelda games are inherently wider in scope than Mario games. This would lead a film adaptation to be more difficult, as a much bigger focus on story and character would be needed.
9 The Legend Of Zelda Isn’t Quite As Child-Friendly As Super Mario Bros
Another reason why adapting The Legend of Zelda would be more difficult than The Super Mario Bros. Movie is that the franchise is not as child-friendly. The Mario franchise has always been very light-hearted and somewhat silly, with minimal scary, creepy, or dark elements outside of the Luigi’s Mansion spin-offs. With Zelda though, the core concept of the games allows the franchise to be darker. Even the action of both franchises is different, with Zelda relying on warfare and weaponry that is medieval in tone. Mario‘s “action” is inherently less-violent, still holding a playful silliness that resonates with families, as shown by Super Mario Bros’ box office receipts.
While Zelda certainly does have an appeal to younger audiences, there is no denying that Mario has a much greater pull for families. Some mainline Zelda games like Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess, and even Tears of the Kingdom are darker stories that would be difficult for very young children to witness. As a result, a Mario film franchise has much more appeal to wider audiences, with Zelda likely not pulling in as young a crowd.
8 The Legend Of Zelda Is Less Popular & Widely-Known Than Mario
While the Legend of Zelda franchise is one of the most popular in gaming, it is no secret that Mario transcends the gaming medium as one of the most renowned pop-culture icons of all time. When concerning the games, the Mario franchise has sold over 800 million units worldwide, as opposed to The Legend of Zelda‘s 150 million units. Also, Mario is a character that almost everyone has heard of, regardless of whether they have played the games or not. While Zelda may be a name many are familiar with, the Mario franchise is one of the most popular in pop culture history, something that cannot be said for Zelda.
7 The Legend Of Zelda Movie Should Be Live-Action (But Won’t Be)
According to the rumor by Jeff Sneider, Universal is searching for a deal with Nintendo to bring The Legend of Zelda under Illumination Entertainment. This certainly makes sense, given the success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie. However, the Zelda franchise would be much better suited to live-action. The Mario games tend to focus on many fantastical aspects, with only Mario, Luigi, and Peach serving as the main human characters in most installments. This means that animation suits Mario much better than live-action, as evidenced by Illumination’s film.
With The Legend of Zelda though, the setting of the series would be better translated into live-action. The fictional country of Hyrule is predominantly inhabited by humans named Hylians, meaning a live-action cast would be better suited. While Zelda naturally has some fantastical elements too, from the series’ many monsters and other sentient species, a live-action franchise could see Zelda be similar to series’ like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Game of Thrones to name a few. If a big enough budget was provided, a live-action Zelda movie could rival other fantasy franchises through practical effects and CGI in a way Mario is not suited for.
6 The Legend Of Zelda Movie Has Bigger Gatekeeping & Canon Problems
Despite the Mario franchise being much more popular than Zelda, the latter has a much more dedicated fanbase. Should a Legend of Zelda film be made, the story would have to adhere not only to a more expansive franchise in terms of story and canon but the wishes of the fans. As a result, Universal could run into some gatekeeping issues with Zelda fans. Minimal changes to any Zelda elements would likely cause an uproar among the fanbase, something that was largely avoided thanks to the Mario franchise’s less story-intensive nature.
5 Link Not Speaking Is A Big Challenge For A Legend Of Zelda Movie
One of the more obvious reasons why a Legend of Zelda movie would be more difficult than a Mario movie is that the franchise’s main character, Link, does not speak. Since The Legend of Zelda began, Link has been reduced to grunts, shouts, and gasps, with the character never actually having a dedicated voice actor. While it can be argued that Mario also does not speak complete sentences, it was at least established Mario speaks English, meaning changing the film to accommodate for this was not as big an issue.
However, one of the immovable aspects of Zelda is Link not talking. If this was changed for a movie adaptation, it could lead back to the prior point about gatekeeping, with fans not liking such a drastic change in Link’s character. It is worth noting that Link is a great protagonist and the many Zelda stories have never suffered as a result of his being mute. However, a silent protagonist is much more difficult to get right on film. It would be harder to make Link a compelling protagonist if he does not speak, as the agency of controlling the character is taken away from viewers of a film adaptation.
4 The Legend Of Zelda’s Characters Are More Complex Than Mario’s
When concerning the characters of the Legend of Zelda franchise, they are also much more complex than those of the Mario series. The Mario games have little in the way of character development, meaning the Super Mario Bros. Movie had relative freedom to craft character arcs from the ground up. With Zelda games though, the characters are much more complex. The titular Princess Zelda often has very compelling arcs in each game, with every installment being packed with equally complex side characters. The Zelda movie would therefore need to delve more into the characters, which could be difficult unless the correct writers are hired.
3 The Legend Of Zelda’s Stories Span Multiple Timelines
Another potential difficulty surrounding the Legend of Zelda series is that the games span multiple timelines. The Mario franchise is much less dedicated to establishing a timeline, and while all games apparently take place in the same universe, there is little to no connection between each, meaning the movie had the freedom to tell a new story. With Zelda though, Nintendo has taken time to establish multiple timelines of continuity for various Zelda games, meaning each story fits into its respective alternate timeline, simply being much more complex than the Mario franchise.
If a Zelda film was to be made, this could cause more problems with the fanbase. If Universal adapted an established Zelda game for their film, it would be less likely to fit into the complex, alternate timeline continuity of the game. This could mean changes are made to overall Zelda lore, which may cause issues with fans not being happy with the adaptation.
2 Every Legend Of Zelda Story Has Its Own Dedicated Fanbase
A similar point is that every Legend of Zelda story has its own dedicated fanbase. Some Zelda games are much more popular than others, and some that maybe are not as popular have better stories. Regardless, every single game resonates differently with different people, meaning Nintendo and Universal may have difficulty deciding which story to adapt. Adapting any one story risks alienating fans of the others. While there is certainly a core Zelda fanbase across every game, choosing one to adapt over the other may diminish audiences.
1 The Legend Of Zelda’s Genre May Hurt Its Box Office (& It Surely Won’t Make $1bn Like Mario)
Finally, the genre of The Legend of Zelda may lead to the film’s box office being impacted, meaning it almost certainly will not reach the $1 billion mark as Super Mario Bros. did. A Zelda adaptation would have to be high fantasy, a genre that has not necessarily ensured box-office success over the years. Outside of popular IPs like The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, fantasy franchises have seen diminishing returns of late. From The Chronicles of Narnia to Eragon, Warcraft, and more recently Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, high fantasy movies do not tend to pull in the same kind of money as family-friendly films like Mario.
Due to this, and the less family-friendly nature of Zelda, the film could not be as popular at the box office as Mario was. This is not guaranteed, however, as Illumination could certainly create a family-friendly Zelda movie, though this would undoubtedly reduce excitement for the hardcore fanbase of the games. Regardless, the genre of The Legend of Zelda leaves cause for concern, especially when compared to The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s overwhelmingly positive box office.
