Nintendo confirms who's playing Link and Zelda in The Legend of Zelda's live-action movie – and I think it drops a big clue about which game will be adapted

We've found our missing Link

16 Jul 2025, 14:15 · TechRadar

News By Amelia Schwanke published 16 July 2025

Bo Bragason-san as Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link for the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie. (Image credit: Nintendo)

The cast for the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie has been unveiled
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed who will play Zelda and Link
Some fans are disappointed Hunter Schafer didn’t land the role of Zelda

Production on the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie is very much underway as two members of the lead cast have officially been confirmed.

The news was posted on social media by Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, who revealed a picture of the actors that will play the eponymous princess of 'Hyrule' (the fictional kingdom in the video game series), Zelda, and legendary swordsman Link in costume.

Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, who made his debut in Mike Flanagan's horror series The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix, has been cast as Link, while Bo Bragason from the period drama Renegade Nell on Disney+ will play Zelda.

Nintendo and Sony casting two young actors to play the lead characters of the Zelda franchise is one of our first indications of which direction the movie could take. Indeed, such a young cast could mean that we see an earlier game in the franchise, such as The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, as the central plot of the film.

Of course, that's just speculation. It could be that there's still a chance that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the subject matter for the first live-action movie adaptation, but that would mean that we're expecting a second Link to be cast for when the character grows up in the game.

This first casting announcement also arguably suggests that we could be in store for a series of movies. Having such a young cast gives the actors room to grow with their characters over multiple films, and means there won't be any issues like Stranger Things now has with its cast of adults playing teenagers in season 5.

Nothing else surrounding the production of The Legend of Zelda adaptation has been confirmed yet, but we do know the release date of the live-action movie: March 26, 2027. We can therefore expect more casting announcements in the months to come.

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