Nintendo built its movie business on Mario, but the company’s next major theatrical bet belongs to someone else entirely.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA, Nintendo’s first live-action movie, wrapped filming in New Zealand in April 2026 and is set to hit theaters on May 7, 2027, according to production timelines confirmed by Nintendo.
“I am pleased to announce that for the live-action film of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA, Bo Bragason-san will play Zelda, and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth-san will play Link. I am very much looking forward to seeing both of them on the big screen,” Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto wrote on X when the casting became official last July.
Miyamoto and producer Avi Arad have steered the project since Nintendo first announced it in November 2023, just months after THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Director Wes Ball, who made KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and the MAZE RUNNER trilogy, leads the production from a script by Derek Connolly. Sony Pictures co-financed the movie and will handle its release.
Nintendo’s ambitions stretch well past one movie. At a November financial briefing, the company mapped out what it called a “consistent release cadence” for its film slate.
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“Following up on the release of THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE in 2023, we have THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE scheduled for release in 2026, and the live-action movie of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA planned for 2027,” Nintendo told investors, according to Nintendo Life. “We are continuing to prepare for the ongoing release of movies in the future.”
Unlike the candy-colored, joke-forward Mario pictures, ZELDA leans into Hyrule’s fantasy-adventure roots. Nintendo’s choice to shoot it live-action rather than animate it, as CBR notes, signals a studio treating Link with more gravity than slapstick, a tonal swing that also raises the stakes: there’s no cartoon logic to hide behind if the script or performances fall short.
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE earned Movieguide®’s Teddy Bear Award® for Best Movie For Families, praised for its themes of brotherhood and sacrifice. Whether ZELDA can land in the same territory remains to be seen. Nintendo has released only a handful of first-look photos and has stayed quiet on plot specifics.
Still, the source material gives Christian families reason for cautious hope. The Zelda games have followed the same arc for four decades: a reluctant hero answers a call bigger than himself, guided by a literal Triforce of wisdom, power and courage, to push back a darkness threatening his kingdom. That’s a story families have gravitated toward long before Hyrule existed, one where bravery and sacrifice outlast fear, and it’s the kind of narrative parents can use to talk with their kids about what real courage looks like, long before anyone buys a ticket.
Movieguide® will publish a full review of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA once it reaches theaters, weighing its content and family suitability the same way it did for Mario. Until then, Nintendo’s movie universe keeps growing, and industry watchers are already floating a possible METROID movie if Link’s big-screen debut lands.
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