Nintendo said no to a Zelda spin-off starring Ganondorf
Nintendo turned down a The Legend of Zelda spin-off that would have handed the lead role to Ganondorf, the fantasy series' recurring villain.
The claim comes from a new report by Insider Gaming, summarised by Eurogamer on 25 September 2026. Eurogamer presented the details as coming from Insider Gaming, rather than its own original reporting. Neither Nintendo nor Ubisoft has publicly confirmed the account, so it remains a report rather than an official announcement.
The pitch came from Ubisoft Milan. The Italian studio made the two Mario + Rabbids games, turn-based strategy games that pair Nintendo's Mario cast with Ubisoft's Rabbids characters. That history made it an unusual outside team to be trusted with a Nintendo property.
According to the report, Milan started work on its Zelda pitch in 2022, shortly after the launch of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. The proposal was known internally as Project Goliath. A spin-off keeps the world and lore of a main series but tells a separate story with a different focus.
At first, the team proposed a brand-new character as the protagonist. Nintendo asked for a rethink. It wanted Ganondorf to lead the game instead, as Kotaku noted on 24 September 2026 in its coverage of the same report. That would have been a sharp break. Zelda games normally centre on Link, the sword-wielding hero, and Princess Zelda.
Milan built a prototype. That is a small playable test, built to show whether an idea works in practice. Nintendo rejected it in November 2023. Conversations between the two companies then broke down between late 2023 and early 2024, and the project was shut down.
The reasons for the rejection remain unclear, as Nintendo Life reported. No prototype footage, documents or statements from either company have been released. Without that, there is little public way to judge what Nintendo saw or why it said no.
The report also names a key creative link. Davide Soliani co-created Mario + Rabbids. He later left Ubisoft after 25 years to establish his own studio, Day 4 Night. His departure came after the Milan team had built its reputation on combining two very different character families into one system.
Ubisoft Milan has since moved to other work. It is now collaborating with Ubisoft Montpellier on Rayman Legends Untold. Montpellier is the French studio long associated with the Rayman jumping and running games.
For fans, this leaves a what-if. A Ganondorf-led game would have put players in the boots of the figure usually plotting to seize Hyrule. It never left the pitch stage.
