With the promises of the first official trailer on the horizon, the team behind fan-made movie The Legend of Zelda: Rising Darkness released a teaser for their ambitious project two weeks ago. The teaser aims to catch viewer’s attention and spark their curiosity while the cast wraps up filming.
Watch the video above for ominous narration, brief character shots, genre-appropriate scenery, and fun title graphics. Once you’re all caught up, I’ll fill you in on the details you’ve been missing out on.
Start setting expectations. It’s healthy, I promise.
Production on this project began back in 2012, but writer, director, and actor Nathan T. Rosseau released an update via the project’s YouTube channel Zeldapower924 last month. He announced that filming would be completed by Christmas this year. He hopes to release the full film in 2016, with a handful of new trailers hitting the interwebs in the meantime. The teaser acts as a prelude to all the fandom movie magic.
The Legend of Zelda: Rising Darkness will feature an original script. Fresh characters join traditional stars of the franchise in this adaptation. A game-inspired soundtrack will set the film’s mood, so keep your ears tuned for familiar chords.
A dark tale
Given the teaser’s heavy tone, it does appear that Rosseau pursued the darker side of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series. As revealed in some behind-the-scenes work on the Zeldapower924 YouTube channel, action definitely has its place in Link’s fan-adventure as well.
The official website describes the plot of the film:
“A young farm boy named Link sets out for Hyrule Castle with his childhood friend Faronu to request military assistance from Hyrule’s army to help guard his village against the increasing monster attacks. However, when he arrives, he learns of the important part he has to play in the demise of the dark lord and the restoration of light to Hyrule. Link, Faronu, and the princess’ hand maiden Impa set out on a journey that will take them across vast deserts, through dark forests, and even to different worlds to stop the Dark Lord Ganondorf’s terrible reign over Hyrule.”
Whether or not the locations will carry the same names, the short video and story summary both appear to nod at the Gerudo Desert and the series’ love of forests, allowing viewers to place themselves with familiar landmarks in mind while awaiting more concrete information.
Cast & Characters
The project’s website and Facebook page contain plenty of photos and information. Since I’ve already got you here, however, I’m gonna feed you some of those details right now. Read on for a list of the cast and characters, both original and traditional.
Link
Actor: Nathan T. Rosseau
Zelda
Actress: Sarah Hurley
Faronu
Actor: Owen Hale
Impa
Actress: Helaine Hall
Rindarin
Actor: Matthew Crory
Selenica
Actress: Maggie Nelson
Valdrick
Actor: Somerset Young
Ganondorf
Actor: Justin Haase
Epona*
Actor: Rudy the horse
* Let the record show that Rosseau technically hasn’t confirmed the horse’s name, only that Rudy joined the cast.
Extras
If this information hasn’t completely sated your curiosity, be sure to check out all the project’s official pages. If you missed the links throughout the article, here they are again:
- Zeldapower924
- Official Website ZeldaRisingDarkness
Following any of those sources promises updates on the film. Rosseau even provides links to other fan-made The Legend of Zelda projects, including Oblivion Rising and Forsaken Fire.
How do you feel about fan productions driven by video game series? Quite a few official video game films are already scripted and in the works, but it doesn’t seem like Nintendo’s jumped on that band wagon just yet. These films may be as close as we get to a full-fledged The Legend of Zelda movie for a while. Thoughts? Concerns? Musings? Share below!
Published: Nov 19, 2015 02:23 pm