No, Studio Ghibli isn't actually making a Legend of Zelda movie

Back in December, we learned that Nintendo was making a movie based on its classic video game series The Legend of Zelda. This is following the huge success of last year's The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Zelda is one of the only Nintendo franchises about on par with Mario when it comes to popularity, so it makes sense that the company would choose this as its next game-to-film endeavor.

Fans have been dreaming about a Legend of Zelda movie for years...quite possibly decades, since the series has been around for a long time. The games put players in the role of Link, a plucky hero who must save the kingdom of Hyrule from a monster known as Ganon, again and again and again. Fans know what visuals they want out of a Legend of Zelda movie — we need the green tunic, the Master Sword, Hyrule Castle, etc. — but it wasn't until recently that Hollywood has gotten its act in gear when it comes to adapting video games to the screen. Between The Last of Us, Detective Pikachu and others, video game adapations are actually getting pretty good, so The Legend of Zelda's time has come.

Nintendo's movie will be a live-action affair helmed by Maze Runner and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball. Before that announcement, a lot of fans were hoping for an animated Legend of Zelda movie done in the style of a film from Studio Ghibli, the legendary studio headed by Hayao Miyazaki that's behind classic animated movies like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and the recent banger The Boy and the Heron. One fan went ahead and mocked up what a poster for that movie would look like:

I would watch that movie! But it's not real. The fan admits in a subtweet that this is an "April fools joke." (Clock today's date.)

But the tweet got thousands of retweets anyway, and I saw "Zelda" trending on Twitter. And you can understand why the poster would take people in. Not only does it satisfy fans who have long hoped for a movie like this, the account is literally labeled "Studio Ghibli Pictures," and has a blue check mark. Well played.

Even though Studio Ghibli isn't actually making The Legend of Zelda movie, director Wes Ball is taking inspiration from them. "I’ve always said, I would love to see a live-action Miyazaki," he said when talking about his film. "That wonder and whimsy that he brings to things, I would love to see something like that.”

I think he has the right idea. There's no release date for The Legend of Zelda movie as of yet, but we'll keep a lookout.

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