Over the years, video game fans have written it on a crack in the rumor mill and moved on.
On February 1, 2021, YouTube channel The Serf Times published an interview with Adam Conover from Adam ruins everything, in which Conover drops some gossip from his time College Humor in the 2010s. Twitter user @supererogatory first called the juicy bits:
Apparently, College Humor planned to combine a claymation sketch Star Fox and Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto even came to the office to go through the details. According to Conover, the project was canceled about a month later and asked his boss what had happened.
Conover recalled the boss saying, “Oh, someone at Netflix leaked the Legend of Zelda thing. They weren’t allowed to talk about it. Nintendo panicked … and they pulled the plug on everything. They pulled the plug on the entire program to adjust these things. “
So the live-action Zelda Netflix series was actually real.
I can’t believe I somehow came across something that looked like some sort of gaming scoop while watching a YouTube video, but based on a Twitter search that I apparently did.
– ⬜️◽️▫️ (@supererogatory) February 2, 2021
Nintendo is notoriously protective of its IP, and it doesn’t readily lend its franchises to third parties, which is one of the reasons the Zelda Netflix rumors were so important. According to Conover, the Netflix leak has pushed the company further into its shell.
There is a hungry audience for video game-related content on Netflix, as evidenced by the Castlevania, Resident Evil and Sonic animated shows and The Witcher live-action and anime series. With the Zelda franchise celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, it would be fitting if Nintendo gave Netflix – or any other streaming service – another chance. However, we will believe it when we see it.