Nintendo Scraps “Legend Of Zelda” Series Because Of Leaks

The Legend of Zelda is one of the video game properties that fans most point to in terms of cinematic potential. However, to this point, there has been no movement, bar a cheesy late 80’s cartoon. This is largely because Nintendo has been notoriously protective over their IPs, due to the embarrassing 1993 adaptation Super Mario Bros.. That failure left such a bad taste in their mouth that they’ve sworn off film adaptations altogether.

A few years ago, Nintendo apparently softened their stance on this, as it was reported that Netflix had begun development of a series adaptation of The Legend of Zelda, while other well-known franchises, like StarFox and Mario got set up with other studios. This news came and went and with no new updates, it was largely assumed that the productions got scrapped.

It turns out these assumptions were true, and Nintendo dropped the hammer, ending the adaptations before they could really get off the ground. According to a report from Eurogamer, the reason for the abrupt cancellation was because the news leaked, with one developer, Adam Conover, commenting that:

I worked at College Humour and we had a secret project where we were going to make a claymation version of StarFox with Nintendo. I know this because Shigeru Miyamoto came to our office. Then, a month later, suddenly there were reports Netflix wasn’t going to do its Legend of Zelda anymore. I was like ‘what happened?’ And then I heard from my boss we weren’t doing our StarFox anymore. I was like ‘what happened?’. He was like, ‘someone at Netflix leaked the Legend of Zelda thing, they weren’t supposed to talk about it, Nintendo freaked out… and they pulled the plug on everything, the entire program to adapt these things.

It’s certainly unfortunate, but it makes sense, from a business standpoint. Nintendo has been able to remain competitive as a niche gaming company, largely due to the popularity of their IPs. If a bad film or show tarnished the legacy of those games, it could translate into a loss of revenue for the gaming giant. Even so, The Legend of Zelda remains ripe for a cinematic adaptation, and hopefully Nintendo will look into the possibility again sometime in the future.