Some may remember that in early 2015, The Wall Street Journal ran a story that claimed sources had informed the outlet that a live-action Legend of Zelda TV series was being developed by Netflix and Nintendo. The story made the rounds, of course, but Nintendoâs then-president Satoru Iwata shut down the rumors stating the information was incorrect, which seemed true given a series never materialized. According to comedian Adam Conover of CollegeHumor fame, the Zelda show was very real, and the only reason it got canned, along with other potential Nintendo adaptations, was because someone at Netflix leaked it.
Speaking on The Serf Times podcast, Conover reveals that at one point he and CollegeHumor were working on a secret project to create a claymation Star Fox in the vein of Wes Andersonâs Fantastic Mr. Fox. Nintendo was on board with the idea, and Conover says Shigeru Miyamoto even visited their office at one point.Â
In a clip picked up by supererogatory on Twitter (as reported by Eurogamer), Conover goes on to say that it was during this time when rumors of the Zelda Netflix show began ramping up.Â
âThen, like a month later, suddenly there were reports âNetflix isnât doing this Legend of Zelda anymore, theyâre not doing The Legend of Zelda.â And I was like âWhat happened?â and then I heard from my boss âWeâre not doing the Star Fox anymoreâ, and Iâm like âOh, thatâs weirdâ. So I went and asked him âWhat happened?â and he said âOh, someone at Netflix leaked the Legend of Zelda thing, they werenât supposed to talk about it.’ Nintendo freaked out because it was the first time they had done any IP in years for, like, any project, they had no television, no adaptations of any kind for years and years but when Netflix leaked it, they freaked out and they pulled the plug on everything. They pulled the plug on the entire program to adapt these things.â
The full clip is worth watching, especially Conoverâs funny story about missing his chance to meet Miyamoto during his visit. Not much is known about Netflixâs mysterious Zelda show, other than WSJâs sources at the time describing it as âGame of Thrones for a family audienceâ Itâs a sad story, but not entirely surprising. If someone at Netflix really did spill the beans, it doesn’t shock me at all to hear that Nintendo, a company extremely protective about its IPs, reacted by basically scorching the earth. Time has clearly healed some of those wounds, though, since Illumination of Despicable Me fame is currently working on the animated Mario film. And while a live-action show won’t be happening, we still think Zelda would make a great Netflix animated series.Â
[Source: supererogatory via Eurogamer]
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