Summary

  • Wes Ball aims to avoid Uncharted's casting mistake in The Legend of Zelda movie, focusing on fan-favorite choices over star power.
  • The potential cast for The Legend of Zelda includes Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Link and Florence Pugh, Hunter Schafer, or Elle Fanning as Princess Zelda.
  • Wes Ball is dedicated to creating a serious and real adaptation of The Legend of Zelda, promising fans a movie that does the franchise justice.

The Legend of Zelda live-action movie seems to be well underway, but if Wes Ball wants the adaptation to resonate with audiences, it should probably avoid one major Uncharted pitfall. Ruben Fleischer, director of Venom and Zombieland, took the lead on the 2022 live-action adaptation of the popular Naughty Dog franchise, which stars Tom Holland as famed treasure hunter Nathan Drake. While casting Tom Holland seemed like a good idea at the time, it turned out to be a blunder that Ball wouldn't want to replicate with The Legend of Zelda.

The Uncharted film had been in development for several years, since before 2009, when Nathan Fillion was approached with the possibility of starring as Nathan Drake. The same can be said for the development of the Uncharted game, which also took a long time. While Fillion never fulfilled the role in Hollywood, he did get to star as Drake in a fan-made short film, which received positive reactions. Mark Wahlberg, Chris Pratt, and Jamie Dornan were all considered for the role of Nathan Drake, but in the end, Tom Holland was cast as a young Nathan Drake, while the film served as a prequel to the games and chronicled Drake's origin story.

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But casting Tom Holland may have ruined the movie's chance to take a place among the best video game adaptations, such as the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the Resident Evil saga. At the time of the movie's release, Holland was 25 years old, whereas Wahlberg, Pratt, and Dornan were 51, 43, and 39, respectively. That's a pretty big age gap, even between the 25-year-old Holland and 39-year-old Dornan. In Uncharted 4, the game which the movie was based on, Nathan Drake was 38 years old, which is much closer to someone like Dornan or Pratt than Holland.

Potential Legend of Zelda Live-Action Fan Cast Without Focus On Star Power

Link and Zelda find Ganondorf in the reveal trailer for Tears of the Kingdom.

At the time, Holland had just starred as Spider-Man in Marvel's Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is the third highest-grossing Marvel movie of all time, after Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War. It makes total sense for Sony to want to capitalize on Holland's fame, but it turned out that perhaps he wasn't the right fit to fill Nathan's shoes. If Ball wants to avoid the lukewarm reaction that Uncharted received, then The Legend of Zelda should refrain from casting based on star power alone.

Right now, The Legend of Zelda has no official cast. However, the internet has tossed around a few potential names for both Link and Princess Zelda. Thomas Brodie-Sangster seems to be receiving the majority vote for Link. Brodie-Sangster and director Wes Ball worked together previously on the Maze Runner franchise, so that seems to be a match made in heaven. Princess Zelda is a little trickier, but there are several potential candidates to play her, such as Midsommar's Florence Pugh, Euphoria star Hunter Schafer, and Maleficent's Elle Fanning. While Pugh is more of a mainstream choice, both Schafer and Fanning could fit the part just as well.

Wes Ball Determined To Make Legend of Zelda a Love Letter to Fans

A screenshot of Link holding a glowing Master Sword in a forest in The Legend of Zelda.
A screenshot of Link holding a glowing Master Sword in a forest in The Legend of Zelda.

Back in March, Wes Ball outlined his vision for the Legend of Zelda movie, stating that he wanted to produce a "serious" adaptation that felt "real" to audiences, especially as a fan of The Legend of Zelda franchise himself. Ball recently worked on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth installment in the reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise, and in an interview with Total Film, Ball reassured fans that he knows how important the franchise is to them, so he's made it his duty to do it justice. "I want to fulfil people's greatest desires. I know it's important, this [Zelda] franchise, to people, and I want it to be a serious movie. A real movie that can give people an escape," Ball said.

While Tom Holland's performance as Nathan Drake in Uncharted received praise from critics, audiences were in agreement that Holland didn't fit the character of Nathan Drake well enough for their liking. In a Reddit thread, many Redditors agreed that while Holland wasn't perfectly cast, his acting prowess was certainly not to blame. In fact, it was a poorly written story and the casting of Sully, Drake's father figure and mentor, that killed the magic of Uncharted for many viewers. Coincidentally, it was Mark Wahlberg who portrayed Sully. Nathan Fillion's name was mentioned further down the thread, as he would make the perfect "older" Nathan Drake, according to some Uncharted fans.

So long as The Legend of Zelda steers away from purely trendy names in the hunt for the perfect Link and Zelda, it might just succeed where Uncharted failed. If the opinions of the audience are to be taken into consideration, The Legend of Zelda movie could become the next Super Mario Bros. Movie. If Ball is truly making a movie by fans for fans, the casting choices will decide the direction the new Legend of Zelda movie is going to take, be it a love letter to the community or another cash grab for Hollywood.