Link is transferring from Hyrule to Hollywood. Coming off the $1.3 billion success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo announced Wednesday that it’s engaged on a live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda. The online game developer stated that though it “will take time” till the film hits theaters, it will likely be helmed by Maze Runner director Wes Ball and be cofinanced by Sony. The information despatched players on a dream-casting spree and signaled the following large step in Nintendo’s quest to evolve from a online game firm right into a full-blown leisure empire.

The Legend of Zelda is one in all Nintendo’s oldest and most beloved franchises, the place a silent, twinky hero named Link battles the forces of evil (often a maladjusted man named Gannon/dorf) with the assistance of princess Zelda. The firm made the primary sport within the collection in 1986 and has since launched dozens extra, together with this 12 months’s critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The franchise is one in all Nintendo’s heavy hitters, a collection the place every sport is extremely anticipated and generally commercially profitable. Tears of the Kingdom has bought 19.5 million copies since May.

Nintendo’s wager on a movie adaptation of the collection is a part of its enlargement into the higher leisure world. Earlier this 12 months, the corporate hit gold with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which ultimately surpassed Frozen because the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time. Beautifully animated, filled with stars like Chris Pratt and Jack Black, and an incredibly appealing commercial for the developer’s video games, the Mario film proved that, alongside darker fare like The Last of Us, variations of online game franchises aren’t the worst concept on this planet.

In October, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser told WIRED that the Mario film’s success was proof of Nintendo’s skill to offer its IP new life in different mediums. Moving ahead with a Zelda film proves the corporate desires to make sure Mario’s success is not a one-off.

The online game trade has been going large on movie and TV initiatives for years, churning out initiatives which are both dangerous (Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Assassin’s Creed, I might go on), very dangerous (BloodRayne, 1993’s Super Mario Bros., Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), or surprisingly nice (The Last of Us, Sonic the Hedgehog, Detective Pikachu). Despite a protracted historical past of failures, studios appear to have cracked methods to make good online game variations, and audiences have routinely turned out for them.

Nintendo, it appears, gained’t be taking any probabilities. Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto stated in a press release Wednesday that he’s been “working on the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda for many years now” alongside producer Avi Arad, who has labored on movies similar to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Uncharted, and Morbius. Miyamoto stated Nintendo is “heavily involved in the production,” and whereas essential info, like which actor will play Link, stays unknown, it’s clear that Nintendo is investing closely in characteristic movies.

Can a live-action Zelda movie compete with Mario’s recognition–or, extra importantly, erase the black spot positioned on the corporate’s identify by the unique live-action Mario film? Maybe. If not, there’s already a fantastic, Zelda-esque live-action movie you may consolation your self with proper now: Ridley Scott’s 1985 movie Legend, a glitter-bombed fever dream the place Tom Cruise hangs out with fairies in a teeny little tunic, and Tim Curry performs the satan. Perfection.