The “Legend of Zelda” series has actually always had dialogue interactions in the game, but Link’s lines are usually not presented directly, but the NPC will respond to him, forming a tacit understanding that he says it but you don’t hear it. Because of this, once the live-action movie allows Link to really speak, some fans will feel that the layer of imagination that has been accumulated over the years will be broken, and the magic of the series may be missing.
The people who are worried are the veterans.
Takaya Imamura, a former Nintendo developer and art director of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, said in response to related discussions on the social platform that he was a little worried that the Zelda magic cultivated in everyone’s hearts would disappear the moment Link opened his mouth.
Link is likely to be able to speak, but he may still be a taciturn character overall.
When Imamura responded to a fan’s question, he judged, “Link will definitely talk, but he may still be quiet most of the time.” This is equivalent to proposing a compromise imagination: Since it is difficult for the protagonist to have no lines in a live-action movie, try to reduce the lines to the minimum and maintain Link as a silent but existential character to avoid damaging the audience’s established impression of him.
Link does interact with people in the game, so it’s not surprising that the movie gives him a voice
In a 2024 Reddit AMA, “The Legend of Zelda” film director Wes Ball was asked whether Link should speak. His answer was to the effect: When he was playing Zelda, Link was actually talking to villagers and creatures, asking questions, and answering questions, but the player did not hear them directly. This statement itself is like foreshadowing: if the movie really let Link speak, the director would also find it reasonable.
Whether Link talks or not is actually not a technical issue, but an emotional one.
For many fans, Link’s silence is a projection space into which you can insert your own character; but the movie must give the character a clearer performance and personality. How to balance between “concrete character” and “preserving imagination” will be the most difficult aspect of the live-action movie “The Legend of Zelda”, and Link’s first sentence may be the tipping point.