The live-action “The Legend of Zelda” movie is shifting its release date back a few months due to “production reasons,” Nintendo announced on Monday. The film will now hit theaters on May 7, 2027, a little over a month after its original March 26, 2027 release date.
The early May corridor is currently wide open, with a new “Star Wars” movie “Starfighter” — starring Ryan Gosling — set for release on May 28, 2027.
“For production reasons, we are changing the release date of the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda to May 7, 2027,” Nintendo game director Shigeru Miyamoto announced on X. “It will be some weeks later than the release timing we originally announced, and we will take the extra time to make the film as good as it can be. Thank you for your patience.”
Wes Ball, who most recently directed 20th Century Studios’ “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” will direct the “Zelda” movie for Nintendo and Sony Pictures.
“The Legend of Zelda” debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System in Japan on Feb. 21, 1986, and in North America on August 22, 1987. It followed the intrepid hero Link, who is on a quest to save the princess Zelda. The game and many of the subsequent games were set in the magical realm of Hyrule. Much of that game, like the Triforce and dungeon-crawling, have become staples of the franchise. The most recent game, “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom,” came out on the Nintendo Switch last fall and allowed you to play as Zelda for the first time.
This is far from the first time that Nintendo has dabbled in the world of theatrical movies. The company’s first foray into the medium was 1993’s flop “Super Mario Bros.” which later went on secure a cult following. That was followed in 1998 by “Pokémon: The First Movie,” which was a box office success. But the company’s biggest success to date was 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which grossed $1.36 billion worldwide and set a Guinness World Record for the highest grossing movie based on a video game.
The “Legend of Zelda” franchise currently consists of 29 titles and ranks among one of the bestselling video game franchises of all time.
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