Nintendo’s Zelda movie has found its princess and hero of time

Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth have been cast as Princess Zelda and Link.

by Charles Pulliam-Moore

Jul 16, 2025, 11:41 AM UTC

Image: Nintendo

Charles Pulliam-Moore is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

Though Nintendo’s live-action Legend of Zelda movie won’t be out until May 7th, 2027, we finally know who is going to be playing the titular princess and her faithful knight.

This morning via its news app, Nintendo announced that Bo Bragason (Renegade Nell, The Radleys) and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (The Haunting of Bly Manor, Pinocchio) have been cast as Princess Zelda and Link, respectively. In an X post about the casting, Shigeru Miyamoto — who is producing the film — expressed that he is “very much looking forward to seeing” Bragason and Ainsworth on the big screen together.

Aside from the fact that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Wes Ball is directing the Zelda movie, we still don’t know all that much about the project. But the Zelda feature is very much a part of Nintendo’s larger push into different kinds of entertainment like movies and theme parks.

The company knocked it out of the park with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and it seems to have plans on trying again with a sequel and a new Donkey Kong project. A live-action Legend of Zelda could be another hit for Nintendo, but fans are probably going to need to see a bit of Hyrule before they’re ready to hop on the hype train.

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