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Back in 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix was working with Nintendo on a live-action series adaptation of The Legend of Zelda. The Journal said that their source is "a person familiar with the matter" who also said that "Netflix is describing it as “Game of Thrones” for a family audience". The project was apparently still in its early stages as the report noted that Netflix was seeking writers to work on the show at the time. However, even if other outlets shared this news, nothing was officially announced and the report was dismissed as rumor.

Now, nearly six years after the original news broke, new details emerged about the project. Speaking to YouTube channel The Serf Times in a recent interview, Adam Conover of Adam Ruins Everything, talked about a "secret project" that was in the works while he was at College Humor. It involved the latter collaborating with Nintendo to make a claymation version of Star Fox and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Shigeru Miyamoto even came to College Humor's office to discuss the project. About a month later, Adam Conover heard the news that the Zelda Netflix adaptation was not happening and around the same time, his boss also told him that they weren't doing the Star Fox claymation anymore.

Asking for more information, he says his boss said the following:

“Oh, someone at Netflix leaked the Legend of Zelda thing. They weren’t supposed to talk about it. Nintendo freaked out because it was the first time they had done any IP in years for any products [...] But when Netflix leaked it, they freaked out and they pulled the plug on everything. They pulled the plug on the entire program to adapt these things.”

You can watch Adam Conover share his anecdote as from 39:05 in the interview below:

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In a tweet following the resurgence of the news, the author of the original Wall Street Journal article, Ben Fritz, confirmed that his reporting in 2015 was accurate but didn't confirm (and apparently won't) that his source was a Netflix employee, only saying that it "may not be true".

So it would seem that the live-action Zelda series was actually going to happen until the news (in some form) started to go public before Nintendo wanted it to be. Given how they are protective of their IP, they found it best to pull the plug on any collaboration at the time. Should the project have gone forward, would you like to see a live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda?

SOURCE

 

[SkittleDash]

A live-action Zelda show... I'll be brutally honest, I'm glad it was pulled. I cannot see a live-action Zelda being... Successful. Just be too weird to see.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

A live-action Zelda show... I'll be brutally honest, I'm glad it was pulled. I cannot see a live-action Zelda being... Successful. Just be too weird to see.

I think it could be done. After all, Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess clearly took inspiration from LotR which was popular back in the early 2000's, so

 

[Agahniim]

I think it would be fairly difficult to translate it into a movie. Movies need a plot, and TLOZ's is basically obtain triangles, kill big bad gerudo and save the pwincess. TLOZ is all about the adventure, solving puzzles, exploring temples, etc. It's not about the characters, and they are given very little development, except in Skyward Sword and BOTW. I'd say this is a disaster avoided.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

I think it would be fairly difficult to translate it into a movie. Movies need a plot, and TLOZ's is basically obtain triangles, kill big bad gerudo and save the pwincess. TLOZ is all about the adventure, solving puzzles, exploring temples, etc. It's not about the characters, and they are given very little development, except in Skyward Sword and BOTW. I'd say this is a disaster avoided.

As a movie? Yes.

TV series? I think there's some wishes to be granted with those triangles you mentioned...

 

[Reploid]

Not a huge loss

 

[MiiJack]

Who are willing to bet that Link talked?

 

[The Catboy]

Nothing of value was lost

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Who are willing to bet that Link talked?

He'd kind of have to...unless if you want a lead defined only by his facial expressions?

Would be kind of cool if they made him silent for a reason. Like, he witnessed his parents' murder or something, and the trauma made him unable to speak? Isn't that what happened to his mom in OOT iirc?

 

[Crazynoob458]

oh uhm excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me princess

 

[Dimensional]

He'd kind of have to...unless if you want a lead defined only by his facial expressions?

Would be kind of cool if they made him silent for a reason. Like, he witnessed his parents' murder or something, and the trauma made him unable to speak? Isn't that what happened to his mom in OOT iirc?

Just have him use his Crowbar to communicate... wait, wrong franchise. XD

 

[godreborn]

should've had an animated series based off of the wand of gamelon.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

I think it would be fairly difficult to translate it into a movie. Movies need a plot, and TLOZ's is basically obtain triangles, kill big bad gerudo and save the pwincess. TLOZ is all about the adventure, solving puzzles, exploring temples, etc. It's not about the characters, and they are given very little development, except in Skyward Sword and BOTW. I'd say this is a disaster avoided.

And Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild were not enjoyable games to play whatsoever, so...

Granted, that's not because of "character development" (though I don't like SS's Zelda, whilst she's still in Skyloft), but because of some truly fuckheaded design decisions, like limited stamina and equipment fragility. SS also had a four-to-eight-slot Pouch, which was completely unnecessary considering no other Legend of Zelda game past or future had such a stupid thing, into which the shields, ammo bag upgrades, and TWO HEART CONTAINERS were crammed into - when the Gear screen was still around. Oh, and dysfunctional motion controls ruining the Harp, Bug Net, swordplay, and Beetle. And the barren Sky and slow Loftwing flight speed. And repetitive visits to the three unconnected ground areas.

 

[LightBeam]

People are really too afraid of adaptations and I don't fully understand. It all depends on the filmmakers doing the work behind it.
Well ok you take Resident Evil and Monster Hunter and it's really not great, but that's because the filmmaker behind it is relatively mediocre.
On the other hand you take the series The Witcher and Castlevania .... It's really great.
I also really liked the World of Warcraft movie, even if it was a lot of fan service, it wasn't heavy and it didn't take a monstrous amount of time to explain the universe to those who didn't know it (it's such a shame that it worked at home...). The movie deserved much better than that I think).

Yes Zelda, there's not a lot of script blah blah blah blah blah, so what ???? It's the principle of an adaptation. Transposing the universe of a video game so that it can work in a movie or a series. Do you think there is no potential for writing a good script in the universe of Zelda? It's so rich, you could potentially tell anything and it would work, as long as there are competent people behind it.

So I'm a little saddened by this loss, unlike some people. Zelda is a big license and I'm sure that even among film professionals there are people who love Zelda and would have loved to work on this franchise to tell a good story.

And on top of that, a StarFox made out of modeling clay ... That would have been great too.
But Nintendo is way too cold, it's boring. There was just a leak and they didn't even try to take the temperature. They just canceled everything without even knowing if they were going to do something good. It's sad in the end, but on the one hand it's not surprising. We're talking about the company that has the biggest insecurity problem in the industry. If they could DMCA a kid who was drawing a picture of Mario, they would do it, so cancel serial projects for fear of "hurting their franchises" when they are doing very well on their own ... Nothing really surprising in the end.

 

[MetoMeto]

Canceltendo

 

[MarkDarkness]

Would have sucked anyway.

 

[Lazyt]

it would have probably sucked, however N can surprise. I am honestly not even surprised the project got cancelled due to a leak because this is not the first time that i have heard about this similar issue. Leaks can do a lot of harm and i believe lot of projects in the past have been canceled due to leaks.

 

[Bladexdsl]

netflix would have ruined it anyway just like they ruin everything else on it. your a fool if you actually pay to use netflix these days

 

[Lostbhoy]

It is a bit pathetic to pull the whole plug due to an unconfirmed rumour that it was possibly happening and to then confirm said rumour by the cancellation!!

In all honesty, it was hardly a leak in the first place. Leaks consist of footage, scripts and plot reveals, cast lists....

I get they may had an argument that all the above could have possibly been leaked also if they continued but has anyone told Nintendo this is the 21st Century where secrets cannot be kept anymore?? Does it take the shine off things in the end?

There is a thought process that spoiler culture actually helps people enjoy the end product more if they know what's coming. It does not detract from witnessing it. I mean, we all know what happened in history but if given a time machine.... We would go back and watch certain events with full knowledge of the outcome.

Guess we will never know if it was going to be any good or not now. Typical Nintendo, unable to give the people what they want.

 

[tabzer]

A live-action Zelda show... I'll be brutally honest, I'm glad it was pulled. I cannot see a live-action Zelda being... Successful. Just be too weird to see.

WTF. Have you not seen "Legend"?

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It is a bit pathetic to pull the whole plug due to an unconfirmed rumour that it was possibly happening and to then confirm said rumour by the cancellation!!

In all honesty, it was hardly a leak in the first place. Leaks consist of footage, scripts and plot reveals, cast lists....

I get they may had an argument that all the above could have possibly been leaked also if they continued but has anyone told Nintendo this is the 21st Century where secrets cannot be kept anymore?? Does it take the shine off things in the end?

There is a thought process that spoiler culture actually helps people enjoy the end product more if they know what's coming. It does not detract from witnessing it. I mean, we all know what happened in history but if given a time machine.... We would go back and watch certain events with full knowledge of the outcome.

Guess we will never know if it was going to be any good or not now. Typical Nintendo, unable to give the people what they want.

Well, they were obviously not even into the production stage and leaks were already happening. Nintendo needs to be in control. Remember when they sued Elián Gonzalez and his family because the raft he floated over on looked too much like something from Donkey Kong?