Will audiences hear Link talk in The Legend of Zelda movie?
The beloved game franchise The Legend of Zelda is being adapted into a live-action movie after decades of existence, and while details have mostly been kept under wraps up to now, director Wes Ball has provided several pieces of information about the movie recently including that he wants “to fulfill people’s greatest desires” in making the movie, and how his experience directing Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will carry over into directing Zelda. In an interview with ComicBook, Ball has now addressed whether or not the iconic hero of the franchise, Link, will speak.
After shrugging, Ball gave a bit of an insight into his thought process going into the movie, stating, “A or B or C. I’ll just have it like the game – you just have a little dialogue boxes pop up in the movie and you pick which one you want. Link does communicate to villagers all over through the game, you just don’t hear his voice.”
While it’s not a clear yes or no, from this statement alone it would certainly seem that Ball intends to embrace The Legend of Zelda‘s nature as a game franchise. As for Link speaking, while it’s never happened verbally in main game series, he has been shown speaking in the Zelda manga series and the Legend of Zelda cartoon series from 1989. While the dialogue given to Link in the manga was very limited to at least somewhat allow Link to maintain the “actions speak louder than words” vibe we all know and love, the cartoon’s dialogue felt gratuitous and notoriously out of character.
Thankfully, it seems this won’t be an issue with Ball as the director for the upcoming movie as he himself is a fan of the games, a topic he also addressed in the interview. “I grew up on playing that game since I was a kid. You know, it’s super important to me. I mean, that, that was, that transported me to worlds, you know, that occupy my imagination forever. It’s part of my DNA, you know what I mean? So I’m a giant fan and so I’m gonna, I’m gonna approach it that way and try to give people what they want but try to make something great, something worthy of the property, you know what I mean? That’s kind of all I can do.”
Nintendo had previously spent years swearing off any adaptations of their characters, but as video game adaptations have become less negatively received by critics and audiences in recent years as Hollywood begins to create adaptations that meet, and even sometimes exceed, the expectations of fans from the pre-existing video games. Recently Prime Video’s Fallout has scored fantastic reviews and viewership numbers, and Nintendo’s own 2023 release with Universal Pictures, The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
As for additional details on The Legend of Zelda‘s movie, we also know it will be produced by long time Spider-Man producer, Avi Arad, and Ball also recently teased the tone for the adaptation.
Are you looking forward to potentially hearing Link speak in the movie?
