Illumination boss denies that they’re working on a Legend Of Zelda movie
He's obviously going to deny a rumor like this, but also there's a different animation studio that should make the Zelda movie
Illumination’s Super Mario Bros. Movie is an enormous, Koopa-crushing hit, one that most likely portends a future where every Spyro, Crash, and Aero The Acro-Bat out there will be getting a video game movie adaptation of their own. But if and when that happens, it probably won’t be Illumination leading the charge—or at least that’s what they want you to think. They like to keep things pretty close to their overalls over there.
Specifically, Illumination boss Chris Meledandri (the strongest defender of Chris Pratt’s Mario voice) denied a rumor that has been going around this week about his studio doing a Legend Of Zelda movie next. That rumor seems like it could’ve been made up by anyone, since Zelda is in the zeitgeist thanks to the excellent Tears Of The Kingdom and it’s safe to assume that Illumination wants to make more Nintendo movies, but no, Meledandri told The Wrap that he doesn’t know “where that rumor came from” and that the only “specifics” he has to share are that there are “lots of rumors” going around.
Meledandri also noted that, yes, he’s on Nintendo’s board of directors now, and yes, Illumination is owned by Universal and Universal just opened its second Super Nintendo World theme park, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. So it’s a denial, but it’s worth noting that it’s not a particularly emphatic denial. He’s not saying “no, we would never do that and I’m mad at you for even suggesting it,” he’s saying “huh, where do people get this stuff?”
If we had to guess, we’d say that his response is less about Illumination secretly working on a Zelda movie and more about him not wanting to show his hand too early. Maybe they’re doing Pikmin or some other Nintendo thing and he doesn’t want to burn the potential hype for that by talking about Zelda—especially since Nintendo should be doing everything in its power to convince Studio Ghibli to make a Zelda movie. Disney got them to make that tiny Grogu short, and Nintendo’s way cooler than Disney! Also, there are plenty of similar video game heroes Illumination can make movies about, who needs Link and Zelda?