Before Her Legend Of Zelda Casting, Bo Bragason Starred In Another Video Game Movie

As announced on July 16, the two lead actors for the upcoming live-action movie "The Legend of Zelda" have been cast. The title princess will be played by British actress Bo Bragason, and the heroic warrior Link will be played by the equally British Benjamin Evan Ainsworth. Both actors are quite young and, to date, only have brief resumes. Ainsworth's highest-profile gig — at least the one that American readers would most readily recognize — was playing the voice of the lead character in Robert Zemeckis' live-action/CGI Disney remake of "Pinocchio. Bragason, meanwhile, has appeared mostly on-screen in her native England, boasting a small role in the Shudder-released 2021 horror film "Censor," which was about the notorious Video Nasties. 

Wes Ball's "The Legend of Zelda" will, of course, be based on the video game first published by Nintendo in 1986. The games are fantasy epics about a sword-wielding paladin who traverses a fantasy kingdom searching for dungeons and the magical Triforce pieces that lie therein. He must ultimately rescue the Princess Zelda from the clutches of an evil pig-like wizard named Ganon. There have been 19 additional "Zelda" games since 1986, and the two main characters have evolved considerably in that time. Some iterations of the character are lanky and mature, while others are squat and comedic. The most recent game in the series was called "The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom," and it was released in 2024. It remains unclear which versions of Zelda and Link that Ainsworth and Bragason will be playing. 

By coincidence, "The Legend of Zelda" will not be the first time Bragason has worked on a feature film based on a video game. Back in 2016, when she was only 12, Bragason provided some of the motion-capture movements for the 12-year-old version of a character named Luna in the Japanese CGI film "Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV."

Any fan of the "Final Fantasy" video game series can tell you ... well, they can probably tell you way too much. The first "Final Fantasy" video game, set in a medieval world of wizards and dragons, was released for the Famicom in 1987 and has spawned over a dozen sequels that stretch from traditional fantasy worlds and into the distant future. The series has spawned dozens and dozens of spin-offs, and some of the spin-offs have multiple sequels and spin-offs of their own. For example, there are seven games in the land of Ivalice, and they were released under their own banner. 

The franchise has also spawned four feature films, starting with the cel-animated "Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals" in 1994. Most American audiences may be more familiar with the second film, "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," an American-produced film that boasted expensive, realistic animation (considered super-advanced at the time). "Spirits Within" infamously cost a whopping $137 million to make, and only earned $85 million at the box office. 

That didn't stop the franchise from making "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" in 2005, and then "Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV" in 2016. Bo Bragason doesn't play a very large role, as her character only appeared in flashback scenes. Also, she doesn't technically appear on camera, having only provided the movements for the Luna character. The adult Luna was originally voiced by Shioli Kutsuna in Japan, and then dubbed over by Lena Headey for the English-language release. Bragason does no voice work on the movie, but it was a video game movie where she did some acting, so it counts. 

The plot of the film involves a magical protective crystal that creates a city-wide force field, an evil army of techno-knights, and a lot of internal regal politics on the distant planet of Eos. The English dub also featured Sean Bean and Aaron Paul.

If you have several decades to spare, I recommend getting into "Final Fantasy."