After the blockbuster success of the animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in 2023, it seemed only logical that another one of Nintendo’s iconic video game properties would get the big-screen treatment.
In fact, it likely won’t stop at one. Given that Mario and Luigi managed to take home almost $1.4 billion in receipts, plan to see the Nintendo Cinematic Universe start up. We’re just a few years away from minor characters like Kid Icarus and that yo-yo-throwing kid from “Startropics” getting their own flicks.
But for right now, we have the second series in the NCU: “The Legend of Zelda,” which makes sense. (We’re not counting Pokemon movies here. The critically panned 1992 flop “Super Mario Bros.” doesn’t count, either, although fans of “Mystery Science Theater 3000”-style dreck should seek it out immediately; watching the otherwise redoubtable Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Hopper running around a dystopian post-industrial Mushroom Kingdom as Mario, Luigi, and Bowser, respectively, makes “Waterworld,” “Gigli,” and “Joker: Folie à Deux” look like sound financial and artistic decisions at the Hollywood boardroom level.)
It sounds like something that should be right up the alley of the wokeistas, too. Unlike in the video games, where Princess Zelda is usually supposed to be saved, she’s apparently going to play a bigger role and not just leave the hero-ing to main male character Link, according to the BBC.
Two Brits will end up playing the main roles: Bo Bragason of “Renegade Nell” as Zelda and Evan Ainsworth of the live-action “Pinocchio” as Link. And the whole thing has the blessing of Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary video game auteur behind the “Legend of Zelda” series. (And “Donkey Kong,” and “Super Mario Bros.,” and “Star Fox,” and… well, you get the point.)
This is Miyamoto. I am pleased to announce that for the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda, Zelda will be played by Bo Bragason-san, and Link by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth-san. I am very much looking forward to seeing both of them on the big screen. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/KA5XW3lwul
— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) July 16, 2025
So, what could be the problem? Well, a vocal segment of the fan community wanted a trans-male actor cast as Zelda, and they are Karening away — and worse — on social media.
Hunter Schafer is best known for his supporting role as a transgender high school student on HBO’s “Euphoria.” Apparently, that obnoxious melodrama produces thespians that get pushed for tons of roles they lack the talent for — because the show’s lead, Zendaya, seems to show up in every major project under the sun for reasons only known to God and which do not involve talent.
Are you a fan of Nintendo?
But now that the film has been cast and Schafer isn’t in it, you can’t venture into geek-bubble social media without seeing posts like this:
when a trans woman looks closer to zelda than an actual woman pic.twitter.com/KzEUvYZXkL
— KOVNAH (@Kovnah) July 16, 2025
Or this:
#notmyzelda https://t.co/PIdtghyPOI pic.twitter.com/wN6lcRPX9T
— evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) July 16, 2025
Or even this kinda-death-threat:
This Hunter Schafer discourse has gotten out of hand.
They are not obligated to make your fan casting reality. pic.twitter.com/H1mvI29kph
— MasteroftheTDS (@MasteroftheTDS) July 17, 2025
Never mind that Miyamoto isn’t responsible for this, it’s gotten to the point where people have to point out not to “harass this girl because hunter schafer didn’t get cast.”
please do not harass this girl because hunter schafer didn’t get cast https://t.co/tOEsvg1EsQ
— *leslie (@LE5B0B0MB) July 16, 2025
These people need to get a life. And no, owning a Nintendo 64 doesn’t count.
Beyond the very obvious fact that no, studios aren’t obligated to make your fandom dreams come true, what about the fact that we were told that trans characters should only be played by trans individuals?
I’m old enough to remember when the very capable Scarlett Johansson was forced off a project where she was to play a Pittsburgh gangster who was a woman who passed herself off as a man. LGBT activists threw a fit, and she backed out of the period piece, titled “Rub & Tug.”
So, what happened? Two years later, the movie — without a bankable transgender lead — was apparently in the process of being converted into a TV series, according to Deadline. That was in 2020. You may perhaps not have heard of the series coming out (pun unintended) in the interim. Holdeth not your breath.
But Princess Zelda is a woman! Her character has nothing to do with transgenderism! Why would the Nintendo Cinematic Universe break the rules that the activists set for representation? You don’t even need more than one guess: There never were any rules, just pressure campaigns to get more trans-identifying actors into roles they didn’t earn in furtherance of wokeness. Zelda being a woman born a woman is irrelevant: What matters is the sop thrown to the activists.
Thankfully, Nintendo didn’t take the bait — the same way it didn’t turn “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” into a Disney-style representation-fest, but a good movie that stayed faithful to the source material. And thank heavens it did.
Unlike the House of Mouse, the Big N seems to have learned its lesson: Just as Dennis Hopper was not a spiky, flame-spitting dinosaur like Bowser, Hunter Schafer is not a princess like Zelda.
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