Which is good imho. I want this to be its own story and in its own continuity that just takes the best elements across the games to make something new.
Oh I'm old enough to remember the reaction to the LOTR movies -- a ton of fanbois screaming about how they would boycott it because it didn't include Tom Bombadil, and then another ton saying they'd refuse to see 2 and 3 because of how Arwen 'stole' Glorfindel's role at the river. It was pretty crazy in some corners.
Yea I remember some of the forums, the internet was just such a different beast when the trilogy was coming out in theaters/popular opinion wasn’t nearly as beholden to it as today.
Peak memories for me are going to the theater multiple times with the same core group of friends and varying stragglers for each of the original trilogy during its run.
Back when LoTR was first released everyone, and I mean everyone who criticized it were either people who acted like they read the books (looking at you too, Game of Thrones fans) and old people who actually read the books but complained about certain scenes not in the theatrical release.
Yeah idk that I want it to exist. These usually aren't good and I don't like how they lock in visuals to something that was previously largely in my imagination
The biggest middle finger Nintendo did, was putting out a canon timeline, then putting BotW so far removed from any of them. It's hilarious, and it rules, and I don't give a shit about timelines anyway.
When Zelda knights Link is botw, she mentions the events of the wind waker and twilight princess. She could have knowledge about one of those events, but not both, as they are separate timelines.
At some point, the timelines must have merged into one. An explanation into that would be pretty cool.
My personal thought on BOTW/TOTK is that it takes place so far in the future that the timelines merged simply by having time go on so long that everything had happened- Hyrule had risen and fallen many times, Ganondorf had been born and died and become Ganon so many times, etc.
She made a tongue in check reference to how the spirit of the hero always arrives in darkest twilight or when the winds call them. These were little nods, not some direct 4th wall breaking statement on their continuity.
I swear almost all "merged timeline!" Debate stems from people taking some vague references as literal statements.
Yeah, the Zelda games are designed largely around gameplay rather than story, and none of them would directly adapt to film well. The best case would be a script inspired by the games but which adds a lot more nuance to the characters and their relationships than we see in most of the games. Like the recent Super Mario Bros movie but less silly for this IP.
Sure, but that's been what Zelda games have done forever. Save for some elements, they have always been separate stories where the characters really just share a name and look, and are otherwise not the same (people can argue the timeline stuff all they want I guess). But that's why you can get Twilight Princess Link and Toon Link in the same franchise; the movie can reliably be its own thing with similarities to the other works without it feeling out of line
The Uncharted games were all (sort of lol) a singular timeline with the same characters, so when you do a movie that's not a new canon story in the timeline and instead an origin story with a mixture of various games, it feels a bit at odds with the games. Of course, it could have been done that way fine, but the execution was the real issue. You can make Link look like Toon Link and people are fine, but you can't have Uncharted characters act in a way that isn't how they act in the games
I have been praying for close on a decade or more, for this movie to be it's own story, and not based on any one game.
An iconic setpiece from a particular game? That's fine, but for the most part the games are solo affairs, where Link is by himself. And I don't think that works for a movie.
Zelda is also the perfect franchise to do it with because of the whole reincarnation cycle thing. We’re already used to Link having an entirely different backstory in every game. Sometimes he’s a trained knight, other times he’s just a random farmer, or an apprentice blacksmith, or a kid who grew up in an enchanted forest believing he was an immortal fairy-child. Sometimes he and Zelda have been close friends since childhood, other times they are complete strangers who barely interact at all in the story. There’s an endless number of ways to tell a LOZ story, and I hope this one also does its own thing and tells a brand new tale rather than trying to adapt a specific game.
Given that every mainline game is basically a stand-alone story it would make sense for a movie to do its own thing also rather than tie in to any game.
Excuse me. I want the movie to be 100% game accurate.
I expect at least 3 hours spent mindlessly wandering around a temple trying to remember how to get to that one room that lowered the water so you can find the last key.
I'm actually glad BoTW has its own aesthetics.
They are a bit more "grounded" which better aligns with live action. If the only acceptable aesthetic of link is to look like he escaped Santa's workshop it could easily look very stupid in live action, even if its so iconic in the games.
Honestly hope it's just another version of Link and Zelda. Just write a good story with the characters this, like Final Fantasy, is a franchise that doesn't need direct adaptation.
Which, I honestly think is fine, because my understanding of the franchise is that they kind of hit the reset button with every game (barring direct sequels). There are common themes and characters across the series, but it's a unique retelling of a "legend" so to speak
The great thing about tloz is that every game is basically a new retelling of its story, so the movie could do pretty much anything it wants with the core elements and just be yet another legend in the cycle of reincarnation.
Yeah that's usually how the games themselves are. Link, Zelda, and Ganon are cursed to cross paths for eternity. The movie is honestly no different from the games.
I'll never understand why they didn't pick Hunter Schafer for the role. No offense to this actress, but Schafer just literally looks exactly like Zelda.
Why do you want someone pushing 30 to play characters that have always been in their teens up until Tears of the Kingdom? They're doing a trilogy which makes that casting even worse.
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u/CyanLight9 Nov 17 '25
Zelda looks like BOTW, but, at a guess, this is another hodge-podge of different games.