Nintendo franchise’s next movie project has found its leads.

After 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie made well over a billion dollars at the box office, it was inevitable that Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda would be making the leap from video game screens to theater ones as well. The big surprise, though, is that unlike the CGI animated Super Mario Bros. Movie, the Zelda movie is going to be live-action.

Now, more than a year and a half after the project was first announced, Nintendo has finally revealed who’ll be playing the live-action Princess Zelda and series protagonist Link.

The news came in Nintendo’s nonchalant fashion, with Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto first letting everyone know he’d grabbed the handle of the company’s official Twitter account before announcing Bo Bragson and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as the movie’s stars.

The British Bragson’s most recent credits include roles in U.K. TV series Renegade Nell and The Jetty and horror-comedy film The Radleys, and she also has some video game-related work on her resume from being the motion capture actress for child-age Luna in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, the CGI animated companion piece to the Final Fantasy XV video game. Fellow Brit Ainsworth’s highest-profile role to date is as the voice of Pinocchio in Disney’s 2022 live-action remake of its animated classic.

The choice of largely unknown performers runs almost entirely counter to the casting decisions for the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which went with Hollywood A-listers such as Chris Pratt and Jack Black to voice its characters, resulting in a measure of early backlash from Mario franchise fans who were upset at what they saw as a dilution of the characters’ existing personas. Ultimately that didn’t do much to hurt the Super Mario Bros. Movie’s box office success or reviews, but it’s possible that since, by nature of being live-action, the Zelda movie’s characters will neither sound nor look just like they do in the games, Nintendo wants to go with actors whose presence won’t overshadow the character they’re portraying.

It’s also worth noting that the movie’s leads are both very young, with Bragson’s age listed as either 20 or 21 and Ainsworth only 16 years old. With Zelda and Link generally looking like young adults in the series most recent games, Bragson and Ainsworth seem to be just old enough to pull off the roles, and could be a sign the Zelda movie’s producers are thinking long-term about the possibility of sequels if it’s a hit.

▼ A commenter comparison of the live-action Zelda and Link to their modern established appearances

The promotional photos included in Nintendo’s announcement are a bit of an odd choice, in that they show Bragson and Ainsworth in what could be fantasy-genre costumes and settings (Bragson is even wearing something in the shade of blue Zelda recently favors in the games), which invites comparison to the game’s visuals, and perhaps criticism for straying too far from the source-material designs. However, with the live-action Zelda movie not scheduled for release until May of 2027, it’s unlikely that filming has begun yet, and so we’ll probably have to wait at least a little longer for the first in-costume photos of the cast.

Source: Twitter/@Nintendo
Featured image: Twitter/@Nintendo
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