John Cena is probably not teasing a role in the upcoming Legend of Zelda live-action film. But after the wrestler-turned-actor posted a no-context image of Link from the original 1986 NES game on his Instagram, fans immediately started running with the mere suggestion that Cena could appear in the Miyazaki-esque film in development at Sony.
To be as clear as possible, Cena is most likely not teasing anything here. If you scroll through his profile, he’s often posting random images with no context (including images from other video games). His bio even says “These images will be posted without explanation, for your interpretation.” But if you think about it, Cena eventually being part of a Nintendo movie isn’t that far-fetched. The Super Mario Bros. Movie shows that the company is more than willing to rely on well-known Hollywood A-listers like Chris Pratt and Seth Rogen. Cena, at the very least, would probably put more effort into whatever role he landed in this hypothetical situation than they did. Fan suggestions started rolling in after Cena’s post and they included some pretty inspired choices, like Skyward Sword’s himbo king Groose.
Having mostly seen Cena in comedic roles, my mind most immediately goes to Zelda characters that would fit his booming voice and large stature, and depending on how the movies handle the mountain-inhabiting “rock people,” the Gorons, I could easily see Cena as someone like Ocarina of Time’s Darunia.
One clever suggestion was that Cena, known for his catchphrase “you can’t see me,” should play Shiro, an invisible soldier from Majora’s Mask, who Link is only able to see by using the item the Lens of Truth. A small role would probably be a waste of Cena’s talents and cache, but the bit would be cute.
But then there’s the possibility of him playing one of the leads. Maybe it’s time for Link to go through Twink Death and be a burly man? He’s certainly imposing enough to be Ganondorf, but I doubt Nintendo or Sony would want a whitewashing controversy right out the gate on something it might hope to see grow into a big movie franchise moving forward. Actually, forget everything we just said: Let him be Tingle, the most annoying character in the series.
While looking through these suggestions, I went back and looked at Kotaku’s fan casting for the movie, and Idris Elba as Ganondorf was such a good pick. Shoutout to Ashley, she was cooking.
