'The Legend of Zelda' Elevates British Child Stars to Blockbuster Leads

One of the unspoken laws of the Hollywood A-list is that once you're in, as long as you don't burn bridges, you stay in. It doesn't matter if the initial big-budget film you starred in is a flop. Heck, some actors have entire runs of bad choices before the proper role comes along. This holds especially true for younger British actors, who can launch a career despite significant failures: Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian), Asa Butterfield (Ender's Game), and Jodie Whittaker (The Kid Who Would Be King) are notable examples from this century. 

This is a roundabout way of saying that even if the forthcoming The Legend of Zelda big-screen adaptation flops, the two British child stars who have just been announced in the roles of Link and Zelda are still worth noting. Whether or not Sony and Nintendo's co-production to bring the iconic, long-running 1980s-era video game franchise to the big screen works doesn't matter. (It should be noted, very few video game films do.) British actors Bo Bragason (The Jetty) and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (The Sandman) just got their big breaks.

Bragason is particularly noteworthy as the titular Zelda. The actor has been everywhere in the last year. Along with her role opposite Jenna Coleman in The Jetty, she also co-starred in Disney+'s Renegade Nell, played Kelly Macdonald and Damian Lewis' vampiric daughter in The Radleys, and will next be seen as the real-life Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, in the James Norton/Nikolaj Coster-Waldau series, King & Conqueror.

Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (no direct relation to Grantchester's Kacey Ainsworth, as far as I can tell) has also been building a steady career since landing the role of Miles Wingrave in Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor. Before being cast as Link, the game's main character, he played the youngest version of Alex Burgess in The Sandman's first season, and since 2022, has been starring in the Canadian series Son of a Critch (the CBC's spiritual follow-up to Schitt's Creek) as the younger version of star Mark Critch. This will be his second run at starring in a big-budget blockbuster, having previously starred as/voiced Pinocchio in the Disney "live action remake" where they pretend CGI isn't animation. 

There's no official synopsis for the movie as yet, though the game's synopsis will do: 

The game follows the elf-like warrior Link and Princess Zelda as they fight to save the magical land of Hyrule from Ganon, an evil warlord-turned-demon king. 

The Legend of Zelda is a game that nearly everyone in the Western world has heard of, even if they've never played. The fantasy game first launched on Nintendo in 1986 and was an instant hit for NES, to the point that Nintendo had to update its consoles so players could save where they were in the game. In the last decade, the company has released multiple new versions, including 2017's smash hit "Breath of the Wild" and its 2023 follow-up, "Tears of the Kingdom," both of which introduced a whole new generation of fans to the franchise.

Sony first announced it would co-produce a Legend of Zelda big-screen adaptation in 2023, and the last couple of years have seen fan interest ramp up as various teenage actors were rumored for the lead roles. This will be the first live-action adaptation of the game; previously, there was an animated TV series back in the 1990s, but it was more of a cult series than a major hit.

Wes Ball (The Maze Runner) is currently on board to direct the film, and will executive produce with Joe Hartwick Jr. through their Oddball Entertainment company, alongside Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad. (The Maze Runner, by the way, is another prime example of a big-budget flop that nonetheless was the catalyst for three British actors to achieve wider fame, including Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Will Poulter.)

Sony currently has The Legend of Zelda scheduled to premiere on Friday, March 26, 2027; however, that is subject to change.