Despite coinciding with the seismic release of the second Switch 2 tentpole, Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo creative and legend Shigeru Miyamoto took to the internet last week to announce that The Legend of Zelda movie had found its live-action Link and Zelda. Two young British actors, Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, will play the respective duo. Little known, especially beyond the BBC audience, the casting of Bragason and Ainsworth sent many fans down the streaming rabbit holes to catch up with their work to decide whether Nintendo and director Wes Ball (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) got it right.
I, on the other hand, spent a lot of time thinking about who should play Ganondorf.
Ganondorf — King of the Gerudo, demon dude, flowing red locks in all timelines, built like a fridge in recent titles like Tears of the Kingdom — is Link’s longtime adversary and the theoretical villain of a Legend of Zelda movie. What Nintendo thinks is required to fill those larger-than-life sabatons is anyone’s guess, but Ball previously made CG apes downright Shakespearean so no one seems off the table for the 2027 release. What it really takes, in my mind, is bravado, a piercing look, and sinister charm.
So who fits the bill? For Nintendo’s (and yours, of course) consideration, here are the top 5 actors who should play Ganondorf. I’m willing to hear your suggestions, too, but please know these are the correct answers.
When I imagined who on earth had Big Ganondorf Energy, I immediately thought of Mads Mikkelsen of Hannibal, Doctor Strange, Casino Royale, and Death Stranding fame. Then I realized Mads Mikkelsen is way overcast as a villain with otherworldly aura. So who is the new Mads?
I put forth Matthias Schoenaerts, the Belgian actor who broke out as a muscle-laden bruiser in the “hormone mafia” in the Oscar-nominated 2011 film Bullhead and now has done a little bit of everything. He’s played a dashing shepherd in Far from the Maddening Crowd, a KGB spy in Red Sparrow, and a gun-fu immortal in The Old Guard movies. Schoenaerts has the dimension to play a suave-yet-diabolical Ganondorf that needs to backstab Hyrule. And he’s never had a big breakout Hollywood role, though he’ll be a big bad in next year’s Supergirl.
Also if casting Ganondorf comes down to a nose, I believe he’s going 10/10 here. Sculpted Adonis-like nasal passages fit for a Gerudo king.
If Nintendo and Ball wanted to nod to Zelda’s East-meets-West roots, the late-career renaissance of Hiroyuki Sanada would be extremely effective. Sanada has worked nonstop since he was a child, having starred in everything over the years from martial arts action films (go watch Royal Warriors, which pairs him with Michelle Yeoh!) and horror movies (go watch Ringu, which pairs him with that freaky ghost girl!). The Last Samurai put him on Hollywood’s radar, while HBO’s Westworld made him a name.
Important Ganondorf qualities: He can fight (he slayed in John WickL Chapter 4), he can act (he earned an Emmy for his commanding role in FX’s Shōgun), and he can take video game adaptation seriously (his Scorpion in the Mortal Kombat reboot had, like, gravitas). I don’t know if Wes Ball will let Ganondorf drop kick Benjamin Evan Ainsworth’s Link into a wall but Sanada could and should do it if cast.
An out there pick? After riding high as a hero in Andor — and stepping out as a loving, beaming source of positivity during the season 2 press tour — I would love to see Luna weaponize his charisma as a cackling villain who takes delight in domination. Ganondorft has a sense of humor! If he had a better mustache, he might twirl it. Luna could turn that into a grounded darkness.
And what he lacks in brawn he’d more than make up for with brains. If Ball wants to stick that camera close in Ganondorf’s face as he stares down Zelda from atop a mighty steed, Luna can gift him the angles. Let’s not forget that before Andor, he did the crime boss thing to spine-chilling effect in Narcos: Mexico.
We need a wide candidate. Momoa is the wide candidate. Let’s just say it: the former Aquaman, soon to be Lobo star has completely oversaturated the blockbuster market. If crossing over into yet another mega-franchise for Fast X wasn’t enough, he and Jack Black also shepherded Minecraft into a $955 million success. He’s everywhere! But, my god, does he have the chest. And the hair. And the smirk!
We’re not letting The Rock take this one, so maybe we need to open our hearts to the possibility that Momoa is the only one who can pull off a faithful physical embodiment of Switch-era Ganondorf.
Nintendo casting Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Zelda and Link feels like a clear signal that we’re getting The Extremely British Fantasy version of a Zelda movie. Makes sense: the early Zelda games harken back to Arthurian legend, with a dash of Tolkien in there for good measure. So we need a British candidate. Enter: Tom Burke, a new hotness.
The 44-year-old Londoner has been a regular “that guy” in British TV for the better part of two decades, but Burke became a bona fide A24-stamped indie darling after starring in 2019’s The Souvenier. His role as a smarmy gaslighting heroin-addicted boyfriend wasn’t an obvious star turn but it nabbed some major roles where he could stretch his range; through the 2020s he’s played Orson Welles in Mank, Praetorian Jack in Furiosa, and the gruff intelligence officer Freddie Smalls in Steven Soderbergh’s recent spy thriller Black Bag. Burke is known for being stoic and cerebral but based on a resume littered with theatrical roles, he could play to the rafters too. Just imagine him powered with demonic energy has he raises Hyrule Castle into the air! That’s cinema, baby!
Bonus: Galactus Cloud as Calamity Ganon
I guess it’s possible that The Legend of Zelda, hoping to avoid dressing someone up in flaming red hair and extravagant armor, would have young Link battle a version of Calamity Ganon in the final act. Breath of the Wild has had a huge impact on what “Zelda” means to the modern player, so it’s in the realm of possibility. For that role, I would personally cast the cloud version of Galactus from Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer. Marvel has put the poor cumulus entity out of work by going more comic faithful in the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps. The industry owes him one.
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