Two British actors will play the lead roles in the hotly anticipated live-action film adaptation of the Legend of Zelda video game franchise, Japan’s Nintendo announced.
The film’s release is set for May 2027, joining a stream of game adaptations from Super Mario to Sonic the Hedgehog that have stormed the box office in recent years.
Bo Bragason will play Princess Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will play Link – an elf warrior who swordfights his way through a monster-filled fantasy world – Nintendo said on social media platform X on Wednesday.
“I am very much looking forward to seeing both of them on the big screen,” said the post attributed to game designer and Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto.
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Miyamoto, the co-producer of Super Mario, created the Zelda universe in 1986. Since then, the hugely popular series has sold more than 140 million games worldwide.
Its latest installment, 2024’s The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, saw the titular character shed her role as a damsel in distress to be the heroine for the first time.
Bragason has previously starred in the British TV series Three Girls and Renegade Nell, while Ainsworth was the voice of Pinocchio in a 2022 movie remake.
Before the announcement, online speculation had been rife that actor Hunter Schafer, known for HBO hit show Euphoria, might be picked for the part of Zelda.
The movie, directed by Wes Ball of the Maze Runner trilogy, is a big-screen first for Zelda, although the game was adapted for a 13-episode animated series in 1989.
