Zelda Movie's Link Actor Wasn't Born When the Wii Launched, Was Only 4 for BOTW Reveal
The casting of 16-year-old Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link in the upcoming live-action Legend of Zelda movie has sparked discussion due to his young age. The actor was only four years old when the game Breath of the Wild was first announced.
Why it matters
The casting choice highlights the generational gap between the source material's history and the actors chosen to portray iconic gaming characters.
Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, the British teenager cast as Link in Nintendo and Sony’s live-action Legend of Zelda movie, is young enough that he wasn’t even born when the original Wii console hit shelves. Ainsworth was born in September 2008, making him just 16 at the time of casting, and he was not alive when the Nintendo Wii was released. The gap becomes even starker when you line his age up against The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the 2017 open-world classic many expect the film to draw heavily from.
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