Beloved actor Sam Neill will appear posthumously in the Legend of Zelda live-action film adaptation, according to new reports which claim he was able to film scenes prior to his passing.
That’s courtesy of Deadline, which additionally reported three new cast confirmations for the film. Australia’s Uli Latukefu (Young Rock, Doctor Doctor) will reportedly play the villainous Ganondorf, Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse, Severance) will reportedly play warrior Impa, and Australia’s Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck, The Handmaid’s Tale) has also reportedly been cast, although her role remains a mystery.
Should Deadline‘s report prove accurate, the film will seemingly include one of Neill’s final performances, alongside additional posthumous roles in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Report.
Sam Neill reportedly cast in Legend of Zelda film – quick links
What we know about the Legend of Zelda film so far
For now, we’ve only seen glimpses at the Legend of Zelda live-action adaptation, in the form of character portraits of Benjamin Evan Ainsworth’s Link and Bo Bragason’s Princess Zelda – but we do know a bit more about what’s actually on the way.
The Legend of Zelda film, currently in development with Nintendo, Columbia Pictures, Arad Productions and OddBall Entertainment, is the first major live-action adaptation of the long-running Zelda video game franchise.
It follows in the footsteps of the Super Mario Bros. animated films as the next major Nintendo adaptations for the big screen, and there’s plenty of eyes on what comes next.
The game franchise has reportedly been the subject of potential adaptation several times in the past, with previous attempts being unsuccessful. With filming wrapping in April and post-production development now underway, it does appear we’ll finally see The Legend of Zelda in cinemas for its planned release on 30 April 2027.
Given the reported cast, we can make some assumptions about which elements of the video game series the film will adapt.
Early speculation about the cast for The Legend of Zelda
Dichen Lachman playing Impa as a companion to Zelda – a fact backed by some unofficial photography near the set of the film – suggests this adaptation could comprise elements of Ocarina of Time, where Impa acts as Princess Zelda’s guardian.
Of course, the character also appears in a number of other Legend of Zelda games, as both an older woman and caretaker, and a younger warrior fighting against Ganondorf.
Pinning down an exact game as inspiration is relatively difficult, as all of its key characters appear in different forms across the series and in fact, the film could take inspiration from many games. It’s also fair to say that plenty of Zelda titles follow a similar formula – the world is ending thanks to the evil of Ganondorf, and it’s up to Link and Zelda to stop it.
Not much is known about how Ganondorf will appear in this film, beyond the role reportedly being handled by the excellent Uli Latukefu, but we’d expect he will be portrayed as an antagonist force here, in line with his standard role. Ganondorf, also known as Ganon, has a fairly complex backstory, but in simpler terms he’s usually the big boss at the end of the action.
As for the other key players, casting news – and assumption – suggests Yvonne Strahovski could be playing a royal queen, possibly Zelda’s mother. Neill is significantly older than Strahovski but could still reasonably play a king alongside her.
Otherwise, we’d expect him to have a role as a wizened mentor (in line with previous roles like in Merlin) or that he could play Link’s father, a mysterious knight of Hyrule who does not have a major role in the games. It’s also not outside the realm of possibility that Neill will play an antagonist.
At this stage, his role is not confirmed and media outlets have reportedly not received comment from Sony or Neill’s team about it.
We are likely to hear much more about the Legend of Zelda film in the coming months, given it’s set to release in April 2027. Expect to see a trailer imminently, with this likely confirming the reported new cast members and their roles.
