Inside the Zelda TV Show's Tragic Demise

With The Legend of Zelda movie on the way, fans are beginning to remember that there was once a Zelda TV show announced. It is a distant memory now, but the announcement of the movie sparked the connection that there should have already been a big adaptation of the epic game franchise. There hasn't been. In fact, there's been just one screen adaptation, and it was a goofy animation from the 1990s that hardly anyone saw or liked. What happened to the Zelda TV show that was supposed to actually be good after all?

The Legend of ZeldaPhoto byZachary Roberts

How the Zelda TV Show Came and Went

The Legend of Zelda was supposed to get a series as per quite a few reports from 2015. Nine years ago, when the game franchise was hardly as popular as it is today, the Wall Street Journal and others confirmed that Netflix was adapting Nintendo's series. Much like the forthcoming movie, it was also supposed to be live-action. It was described as Game of Thrones, but for family audiences (as if that's not as oxymoronic as it gets). Obviously, since it's been nearly a decade, it never came out.

Ultimately, those reports ended up being the show's undoing. It seems as if Netflix wanted to keep everything close to the chest. The fact that information had leaked at all was a big reason they canceled the project while it was in development. Nothing else was ever reported, as no casting details or anything else was ever confirmed even after the fact. There's no telling who would've played Link, Zelda, and the other characters, or who would have written this now-infamous show.

The Journal did report that the show was still looking for a writer. They also stated, and this is perhaps where things went wrong, that they asked Nintendo for comment. The gaming titan responded that they won't comment on "rumors and speculation." The report did acknowledge that Netflix had barely gotten into the project and thus, it could be canceled with ease. That proved to be a bit of unfortunate foreshadowing.

Netflix Cancelled Zelda and Another Nintendo Show

The Legend of Zelda TV show wasn't the only thing Netflix was doing. Adam Conover, of Adam Ruins Everything fame, said via a report by IndieWire that he was actually working on a claymation Star Fox project with Netflix. Eventually, the rumored Zelda TV show was scrapped and the Star Fox show quickly followed. Netflix pretty much backed out of that area of film-making entirely.

“I heard from my boss that we weren’t doing ‘Star Fox’ anymore," Conover revealed. "Someone at Netflix leaked The Legend of Zelda thing and they weren’t supposed to talk about it. Nintendo freaked out because it was the first time they had done any television or other adaptations for years and years. But when Netflix leaked it, they freaked out and they pulled the plug on the entire program to adapt these things.”

Since then, not much has happened on the Zelda or any other Nintendo project adaptation. The Super Mario Bros. Movie came out last year and grossed over $1 billion, but that was eight years after these fabled adaptations bit the dust. There's still no Zelda movie, though it is officially announced. Reports on it likely won't spook Sony, the company doing the adaptation, like it did Netflix, but it still only has a few confirmed details. The director, Wes Ball, has been announced, and a few writers and producers are on board.

Those who were excited for the Zelda TV series are not going to get a show any time soon. If the movie does well (judging based on the money made despite the critical reaction to the Mario movie, it will), a franchise could be born. They'll probably make sequels and spin-offs, which will probably all stay in film format. There are benefits and drawbacks to both film and television, but for now, Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf will be on the big screen and not the small one. A Zelda TV show may come someday, but not today.

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This article was written by Zachary Roberts.