The Legend of Zelda movie is currently being filmed where Lord of the Rings was shot

The next major Nintendo series to get the movie adaptation treatment after Mario will be The Legend of Zelda, with a film set in Hyrule hitting theaters in 2027. We still don't know much about the ambitious attempt to transition from video games to the big screen, but where the movie is currently being filmed gives us a solid impression of what it will look like behind the scenes.

Nintendo is shooting scenes for the Zelda movie in iconic Lord of the Rings locations

Link and Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda movie.

Filming for the upcoming Zelda movie is taking place in Otago, and more specifically, Glenorchy, according to CBR. Most places in New Zealand have few names, while die-hard fans of The Lord of the Rings will recognize them as the locations of iconic scenes from Peter Jackson's trilogy.

A few specific shooting locations for the Zelda movie don't narrow down which era of the series Nintendo might be pulling for. It's a positive sign that Sony — yes, PlayStation's parent company is working on this film with Nintendo — isn't just filming on location for this project, but using backdrops that are synonymous with making fantasy worlds feel real.

The Lord of the Rings: Gandalf the Gray was played by Ian McKellen.

While others have used New Zealand's lush landscape to film fantasy projects, none have done it quite as famously as Jackson did in The Lord of the Rings. The country, and the locations in which the Zelda movie is currently being filmed, are so intrinsically linked to the iconic Tolkien trilogy that New Zealand's Department of Conservation has a page dedicated to the location of various scenes from the movie.

Perhaps The Legend of Zelda will have its own page one day if it's big enough to leave the mark on pop culture that the LOTR movies have.

While the Zelda move will be here, its actors, and the games it can take inspiration from

A screenshot from the Legend of Zelda movie. This shows a close up of the link.

If all goes according to plan, the Zelda movie will be in theaters this time next year. Currently slated for release in March 2027 – the same month as Sonic 4 – we already know who will play Link and Zelda.

Sony and Nintendo have opted for two relatively unknown actors to portray live-action versions of its iconic characters. Benjamin Ainsworth will be playing Link, and Bo Bragason will be Zelda. Apparently, Nintendo fans didn't want to have any preconceived notions about the actors, which is exactly what many people did when they discovered that Wes Ball (The Maze Runner, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) was directing.

We don't know if Ainsworth's link speaks. A normally silent protagonist, while traditional fans want the movie to be true about Link, it would feel a bit odd for the main character not to speak for the entire movie. As for what games we can expect to pull from Nintendo, rumors that Ocarina of Time is getting a remake this year suggest that it may be the game that the movie's creators look to for the most inspiration.