Universal Pictures is going from the Mushroom Kingdom to the Kingdom of Hyrule. The studio, which partnered with Nintendo for Illumination’s animated $1.3 billion blockbuster The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is reportedly close to closing a “big deal” with the video game company for The Legend of Zelda movie. According to industry insider Jeff Sneider on The Hot Mic podcast, Universal’s Illumination will develop the animated Zelda movie as the “the next big Illumination-Nintendo franchise” after Mario scored as the highest-grossing film of 2023 so far and the highest-grossing video game movie ever.
In April, Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto told the Japanese outlet Nihon Keizai Shimbun that there is “no doubt” Nintendo would make future films after the blockbuster success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which Miyamoto produced alongside Illumination’s Chris Meledandri for Universal.
“I have to say, I am interested,” Nintendo’s Eiji Aonuma, who produced every Zelda game since 1998’s Ocarina of Time, previously told Polygon about a potential movie adaptation. “For sure. But it’s not just me being interested in something that makes things happen, unfortunately.”
This story is developing and will be updated.
