Nintendo's Legend of Zelda Live-Action Film Coming to Netflix, Fulfilling 10-Year-Old Meme Prophecy

Netflix and Sony are teaming up to make a decade-long, meme-fueled rumour a reality, as their newly announced “exclusive multi-year agreement” includes the streaming rights to Nintendo’s upcoming live-action The Legend of Zelda film.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda will be streamed exclusively on Netflix.

This story is, from what I can tell, over a decade old at this point, but the difference is that this time… it’s actually true.

The history surrounding this rumour is lengthy and partially meme-based, yet it seemingly (at one point in time) had some real basis to it. The earliest rumour goes all the way back to February 2015, when The Wall Street Journal reported that a live-action The Legend of Zelda TV series was supposedly in the works at Netflix.

Now, obviously, that never actually came to fruition. However, it seems that The Wall Street Journal’s leak was true, because Adam Conover (who you may know as the creator and star of the TV series Adam Ruins Everything) revealed in 2021 that the project was scrapped following the publication of WSJ’s story.

Our first look at Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link in The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo

According to Conover, he learned that the Netflix The Legend of Zelda TV series had been cancelled because he was working on a claymation StarFox project at the time. That project was also scrapped when “Nintendo freaked out” and “pulled the plug on everything” following WSJ’s leak.

Since then, there have been a number of silly, AI-generated The Legend of Zelda Netflix hoax stories online. You may remember the most popular one that originated all the way back in 2022, featuring Tom Holland playing the role of Link.

AI-generated posters of Emma Watson as Princess Zelda, Idris Elba as Ganondorf and Danny Devito as Tingle also made the rounds. Now keep in mind, this story picked up steam in 2022, following rumours that originated in 2020.

At this point in time, the internet wasn’t as familiar with AI-generated tomfoolery, so the hoax managed to fool thousands of people. Still, the idea of Tom Holland as Link was so ridiculous that the story was intentionally memed into the spotlight.

Of course, a live-action The Legend of Zelda film did eventually become a reality, following the announcement that Nintendo and Sony would be collaborating to produce one in 2023.

The funny thing is that everything has now come full circle, because Netflix and Sony just announced in a press release on January 15th that The Legend of Zelda will be exclusively streaming on Netflix once its theatrical run is over.

The deal between Netflix and Sony was likely inspired by the success of KPop Demon Hunters, which also just won the award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2026 Golden Globe Awards.

What a time to be alive, huh? Hopefully, a few other details regarding the old Legend of Zelda Netflix hoax prove to be prophetic as well, because Danny DeVito as Tingle is an incredible bit of casting.