If you've been online this week, you've probably seen the gaming world marking a cluster of franchise anniversaries. Stardew Valley turned 10. Pokémon hit 30. And quietly, with barely a fanfare from Nintendo itself, The Legend of Zelda turned 40. No new game reveal. No remake announcement. Not even a hint of news about the long-anticipated live-action film. Just some miniature weapon replicas sold at select stores in Japan. For one of gaming's most beloved franchises, it was a pretty muted birthday.
Into that silence stepped IGN with a far more fitting tribute: a sit-down interview with Patricia Summersett, the woman who has been the voice of Princess Zelda for the past decade. Summersett voiced the character in both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and across the spinoffs Age of Calamity and Age of Imprisonment. As Kotaku reports, it was she, not Nintendo, who actually gave the franchise's 40th anniversary any real sense of occasion.
The Audition Nobody Could Have Predicted
One of the most striking parts of Summersett's story is how she got the role in the first place. She was handed what she describes as a "bleached script" — an audition document stripped of any identifying details about the game or characters involved. Breath of the Wild was still entirely under wraps, and Zelda, of course, had never had a speaking voice in the series before. There was no precedent to guess from.
The British accent Zelda now carries in games was not a direction from Nintendo, either. It was Summersett's own call, drawing on her training at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and the character's status as royalty. As she put it to IGN, it is easier to frame it as a "Hylian accent" rather than pin it to any specific regional English dialect. Given that the live-action film has now cast English actress Bo Bragason in the role, the accent choice has taken on an interesting retroactive logic.
The Movie Question Everyone's Asking
Summersett is generous about the upcoming Sony and Nintendo co-production, speaking warmly of Bragason and expressing confidence the film will portray a strong, powerful version of Zelda. She does not appear to have a role in the production itself, but that hasn't dimmed her enthusiasm.
The more pointed question she raises concerns Link. The Legend of Zelda film is being directed by Wes Ball, with Benjamin Evan Ainsworth cast as the green-tuniced hero. In the games, Link is famously mute — a deliberate design choice that lets players project themselves onto the character. Summersett flagged the obvious puzzle that creates for a live-action blockbuster: will he speak? Nintendo and the filmmakers have given no indication either way, and Summersett says she simply doesn't know. It's the kind of decision that could define how the film lands with longtime fans. The Super Mario Bros. Movie gave Mario a full voice and personality to considerable success. A mute Link in a two-hour cinema feature is a harder proposition, though not an impossible one.
The film is currently in production in New Zealand, with a theatrical release scheduled for May 2027, after which it will stream exclusively on Netflix. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Zelda, is producing alongside Marvel veteran Avi Arad. Nintendo is financing more than half the production, giving it significant creative leverage over the final product.
Let's Be Real: They're Not Dating
A portion of the interview addresses a familiar online flashpoint. Summersett previously shared her personal views on the nature of Link and Zelda's relationship, and those comments were picked up and misread by a widely shared article as confirmation the characters are romantically involved. She has now clarified her position explicitly: she thinks there is something valuable in keeping the relationship deliberately open.
Her view, as she explains it, is that the bond is one of deep friendship, protectorship, and perhaps unrequited romantic undertones — but crucially, nothing definitive. For Summersett, that ambiguity is part of what makes the franchise work. It means fans can bring their own interpretations to the relationship, whether that is a grand romance, a platonic partnership, or something else entirely. She describes seeing fans propose to each other at conventions using Zelda as their shared language. That is the kind of cultural weight that specificity would dissolve.
A Hidden Skill Worth Knowing About
Perhaps the most charming detail to come out of the interview is a small one. In preparing for Breath of the Wild, Summersett dug through the series companion book Hyrule Historia and became fascinated by the Hylian script used in Twilight Princess. She taught herself to write it over coffee sessions during the recording period and says she now uses it fluently, including writing personal notes to fans at conventions in the fictional alphabet. It is the kind of dedicated, self-directed preparation that doesn't usually make press releases, but that defines how a performance becomes something more than a job.
For Australian fans of the franchise, the anniversary week has been a reminder that Zelda carries genuine cultural weight across generations. The games have sold over 150 million units globally, and with a major film adaptation arriving in 2027, that audience is only likely to grow. Whether Nintendo gives future anniversaries the attention they deserve is a different question. For now, at least, Summersett has done the celebrating that the company did not.