Legend of Zelda movie director teases "awesome idea" and says he wants to create something "serious and cool, but fun and whimsical"

A live-action Legend of Zelda movie is on the way from Wes Ball and, now, The Maze Runner director has outlined his exciting vision for the upcoming Nintendo project.

"I have this awesome idea," Ball tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday March 28, which features The Fall Guy on the cover. "I’ve been thinking about it for a long freakin’ time, of how cool a Zelda movie would be... 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 even points to that escapism ("I want to live in that world," he says) as the driving force behind The Legend of Zelda movie. 

"That’s the thing I want to try to create – it’s got to feel like something real. Something serious and cool, but fun and whimsical."

The Zelda movie, announced in November in a joint partnership between Nintendo and Sony Pictures, will bring to life a video game franchise that's thrived for almost 40 years.

Often focusing on the tunic-clad Link in his battle against series villain Ganon (or other evildoers), the series has sold over 150 million copies. Its most recent entry, Tears of the Kingdom, was among the highest-selling games of 2023.

Before he gets to grip with the Hero of Time, Wes Ball's new movie Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is released on May 10. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, March 28.

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