The Legend of Zelda director says the movie is more "live-action Miyazaki" than Lord of the Rings

Dec. 5, 2023

“My whole life has led up to this moment”

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Director Wes Ball says his live-action The Legend of Zelda is going to subvert expectations.

PerEntertainment Weekly, Ball described his vision for the film as “this awesome fantasy-adventure movie that isn’t like Lord of the Rings, it’s its own thing. I’ve always said, I would love to see a live-action Miyazaki. That wonder and whimsy that he brings to things, I would love to see something like that.”

Much like Lord of the Rings, The Legend of Zelda franchise has elves, swords, horses, towers, princesses, and epic fight scenes. The original 1986 game is long rumored to be inspired by the Lord of the Rings books. It looks like Ball, however, is looking toward anime films like Princess Mononoke or even Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, for inspiration.

Anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is known for his distinct style, which combines soft and painterly yet extremely vibrant backgrounds with more simplified but expressive characters. The softness in Miyazakis' style makes even the bloodiest of fight scenes (i.e. Princess Mononoke) seem dreamy. The most recent Zelda games, Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity, and Tears of the Kingdom, which use a 2D, 3D-hybrid style of animation known as cel-shading, have a similarly dreamy vibe. We get the vision.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Ball continued. “My whole life has led up to this moment. I grew up on Zelda and it is the most important property, I think, that’s untapped IP, if you will. So we very much are working hard to do something. We’re not just trying to do it because we can. We want to make something really special.”

The Legend of Zelda movie does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list ofupcoming video game movies.

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Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent’s Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

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