Zelda fans think they know who’ll play Link in live-action movie

Cameron Frew
Tom Holland as Link in Zelda concept art and an image from Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda is being transformed into a big-budget, live-action movie – and fans think they already know who’ll be playing Link.

It’s been a strange year at the box office: surefire hits like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Indiana Jones 5 have floundered, indie hits like Sound of Freedom have triumphed, and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer exceeded everyone’s expectations with a near-$1 billion gross.

One of the biggest success stories is The Super Mario Bros Movie, Nintendo and llumination’s all-star collaboration that brought Mario, Luigi and co. to the big screen. In a quiet spot on the theatrical slate with little competition for family audiences, it became a box office monster, raking in more than $1.3 billion.

Everyone predicted what would happen next: if a good Mario movie was possible, then why not make a Legend of Zelda film? Well, that’s exactly what’s happening – now it’s just a question of who’ll star in it.

While Chris Pratt immediately started trending after the Zelda movie was announced, given he voiced Mario, Tom Holland isn’t an outlandish bet for the role of Link.

The Maze Runner’s Wes Ball will direct the movie – but, crucially, it’s being produced by Sony’s Avi Arad, who was an executive producer on Holland’s MCU Spider-Man trilogy. Arad also worked on Venom, Morbius, and both Venom and Spider-Verse movies.

“Tom Holland getting casted as Link is now a possibility and that’s terrifying,” one user tweeted. “I’m praying on my hands and knees to god for Tom Holland to be Link that would be so damn funny please Avi Arad I’m begging you,” another wrote.

“Me and the squad in 2026 rolling up to see Tom Holland play Link and Chris Pratt play Ganondorf in the new Zelda movie,” a third tweeted. “Guys stop saying Tom Holland will be Link y’all are going to manifest it into existence,” a fourth wrote.

“I’m starting to warm up to the idea of Tom Holland playing Link in a Zelda movie. I just hope he doesn’t act like Peter Parker,” a fifth tweeted.

In a statement, Nintendo didn’t confirm any casting, but said: “By producing visual contents of Nintendo IP by itself, Nintendo is creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built, through different means apart from its dedicated game consoles.

“By getting deeply involved in the movie production with the aim to put smiles on everyone’s faces through entertainment, Nintendo will continue its efforts to produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible.”

The Legend of Zelda movie currently doesn’t have a release date, but you can check out our other Zelda coverage here.