Nintendo gives LEGO a hook with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Nintendo has finally announced a title and release date for its sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, giving the LEGO Group all the excuse it needs to bring us Zelda sets in 2023.

There’s no denying that there’s a huge appetite out there for LEGO The Legend of Zelda sets, not least through LEGO Ideas, where countless projects based on the adventures of Link have rocketed to the review stage – only to falter at the final hurdle. The LEGO Group has turned down Hyrule castles at every opportunity, and as with all rejected projects, hasn’t provided a specific reason for doing so.

That means we can only speculate as to why it’s so far ignored The Legend of Zelda, despite its ongoing relationship with Nintendo for LEGO Super Mario. But of all the theories – licensing issues, lack of demand and so on – the absence of a current property to hook them to is the one we’re pinning our hopes on. After all, it’s the one most easily solved, and will soon be remedied through the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

As revealed during today’s Nintendo Direct, the long-awaited sequel will finally arrive on Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023. And if there really are no issues with licensing (which would surely prevent any LEGO Ideas submissions in the first place), it feels like the perfect opportunity for the LEGO Group to expand its partnership with Nintendo beyond just Super Mario.

We’ve also seen the company lean heavily into wider video game territory over the past few years, through its Overwatch range and one-off products like 21331 Sonic the Hedgehog – Green Hill Zone and 76989 Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck, so it would seem unwise to rule out LEGO The Legend of Zelda sets altogether.

And if there are any in the works, May 2023 now seems like the best time to put them on shelves, in tandem with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Nothing is confirmed (or even rumoured) at this stage, but we’re keeping our minds open to the possibility. Because even that is pretty exciting…

Featured image: Nintendo

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