Sam Neill will appear in Sony and Nintendo's live-action Legend of Zelda film, marking the late actor's final screen performance, Deadline reported on 6 August 2026.

Neill passed away on 13 July. Beyond Zelda, he left behind completed work in two other unreleased films: The Last Resort and Godzilla x Kong: Supernova. The Zelda role, however, carries a particular weight — it is the last time audiences will see him in a cinema.

The film has also assembled a broader cast. Bo Bragason plays Princess Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth plays Link, the two figures at the centre of a franchise that began as a 1986 Nintendo video game. Uli Latukefu plays Ganondorf, the villain who has menaced the kingdom of Hyrule across decades of instalments.

Joining them are Yvonne Strahovski, cast as a queen whose specific role has not been confirmed, and Dichen Lachman as Impa, the bodyguard and advisor to Princess Zelda. Strahovski and Lachman previously worked together on the television series The Handmaid's Tale and the earlier show Astray.

Behind the camera, Wes Ball directs, with a script from T.S. Nowlin. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto — the game designer who created The Legend of Zelda in 1986 — produces alongside Avi Arad, a veteran of comic-book and video-game adaptations. Sony and Nintendo co-finance the picture, which is set for release under Sony's Columbia Pictures banner on 7 May 2027, a date confirmed in Sony's investor relations filings from May 2026.

Production wrapped in April, meaning the film is now in post-production. For a project of this scale — a live-action adaptation of one of gaming's most beloved properties, co-financed by the company that created the game and a major Hollywood studio — the casting of Neill adds a layer of poignancy to what is already one of the more closely watched releases on the 2027 calendar.

Neill's career spanned five decades, from his breakout in the 1977 New Zealand film Sleeping Dogs through Jurassic Park, The Piano and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. His final performance will reach audiences nearly a year after his death.