The public’s expectations for the live-action Legend of Zelda film are set very high, and the movie’s director Wes Ball appears to understand and identify with that. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ball describes the template of his vision and expresses his enthusiasm and hope for the project. “We’re not just trying to do it because we can. We want to make something really special,” he says.
He declares himself a massive fan of The Legend of Zelda, which is notably clear due to the resurfacing of an old tweet from early 2010, right after the release of James Cameron’s Avatar, where he said that the Legend of Zelda series was among the most deserving of such a blockbuster treatment. He even bemoaned that he would never get the chance to direct it himself, which has aged delightfully poorly.
Ball names Hayao Miyazaki as one of his main influences for his vision of the film. He describes Zelda’s fantasy style as belonging less to the likes of Lord of the Rings’ high fantasy, and more to the soft magic of Studio Ghibli. For his film, Ball intends to embrace “that wonder and whimsy that [Miyazaki] brings to things” in order to honour the spirit of The Legend of Zelda. The comparisons between Zelda and Studio Ghibli are frequent and not unwarranted. For instance, multiple aspects of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom bear similarities to the themes and imagery of Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke.
Another major component of Wes Ball’s directorial career is the aforementioned James Cameron. Regarding the Avatar director’s flair, he says, “James Cameron’s one of the guys I look up to in terms of movies. He’s able to do big, giant spectacle, but he’s still able to ground his stories in a way that is very relatable to broad audiences. Avatar inspired me to ultimately make my little short ‘Ruin’ that got me on to the Fox people, and they gave me the Maze Runner movies. From there it went to Planet of the Apes and ultimately to Zelda.”
The interview is available in full here. Ball will finish production on 2024’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, then “have a little bit of a rest for a moment, and then dive into [Zelda] and hopefully give fans what they’re hoping for.”
