(Bloomberg Opinion) -- “It's dangerous to go alone!”
It might be the most famous line in all of videogames, uttered at the beginning of 1986's , as an old man hands you a sword and sends you off on an adventure. It's also advice that Nintendo Co. has been taking: With its announcement of a Zelda live-action movie, it's shown again that it knows better than to go by itself.
It's been seven years since the Kyoto-based firm first said it was venturing into the movie business, and ever since it's been picking some smart partners. For the animated , the second-biggest earner at the worldwide box office this year, it turned to Illumination, the maker of Minions that's been producing the most consistently successful computer-generated movies for the family.
For a live-action Zelda movie, a beloved franchise with familiar characters, a deep mythos and an emphasis on action, it's partnering with someone for whom that is stock in trade: Avi Arad, the Israeli-American former toy magnate turned movie producer, who built Marvel Studios and laid the foundation for the modern superhero movie. While Arad left Marvel before it began to dominate the zeitgeist, he continues to have success in the field, producing the likes of Sony Group Corp.'s Spider-verse animated movies.
And it is Sony's movies unit that will co-finance and distribute the Zelda film. For kids of the 1990s, it's something of a cats-lying-down-with-dogs moment: Sony and Nintendo teaming up for the first time since the Japanese companies fell out over the development of the original PlayStation, which was first intended as an expansion of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
That partnership was a bust, and triggered Sony to enter the videogames industry by itself, a sector it would soon dominate. Many years in the wilderness followed for Nintendo, but the firm has found sure footing again with the success (and unexpectedly long lifespan) of its Switch console.
Once regarded as a notoriously hard company to work with, it has clearly learned its lessons. Increasingly, it's partnering with others to boost revenue from its vast catalog of intellectual property, from maker Niantic Inc., to Nintendo-themed areas at Universal Studios theme parks across the world.
Mattel Films, which with Greta Gerwig's made the only movie to beat Mario at the box office in 2023, has some 14 live-action films in the works, from the action figures like He-Man to the more questionable Magic 8-Ball. But so far, Nintendo's taking it slowly: Famed creator Shigeru Miyamoto warns the Zelda movie will “take time until its completion,” with development only just beginning.
Nonetheless, the Mario-maker is hinting at more ambitious plans. Miyamoto told a briefing Wednesday that the firm wants to release a movie every year. With still no sign of a Switch successor — executives emphasized Wednesday that it would continue to support the aging console “without being bound by the traditional concept of the platform lifecycle” — Nintendo could use the kind of synergy the firm has seen from the Mario movie, which boosted sales of existing games in the franchise by 30% from a year earlier.
To repeat that success, Nintendo will need to answer some big questions about Zelda: Who will play the eponymous princess and the hero, Link? Is director Wes Ball, best known for the middling movies, the right man for the job? And how will the creators handle turning into a live-action movie a franchise in which the main character famously never speaks?
With Mario's controversial voice casting and modern setting, Nintendo showed it wasn't afraid of making big changes. But it's a canny choice of allies that might be its smartest move. After all, it's dangerous to go alone.
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Zelda's Legend at Nintendo Proves Great IP Is Timeless: Dave Lee
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Nintendo Must Plot Exit From Uncharted Territory: Gearoid Reidy
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Gearoid Reidy is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Japan and the Koreas. He previously led the breaking news team in North Asia, and was the Tokyo deputy bureau chief.
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