Tingle creator reveals who should play him in the Zelda movie

The former Nintendo artist who designed the Zelda character Tingle says he would love to see the character appear in the upcoming live-action Zelda movie, and also knows who he’d like to see in the role.

Takaya Imamura – whose art was integral to some of Nintendo’s most iconic games including Star Fox, F-Zero and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask – left Nintendo in 2021 and created a manga called Omega 6, the game based on which is due to be released in the West next year.

In a recent interview with VGC, we asked Imamura whether he would like to see Tingle appearing in another Zelda game, even though he’s no longer with Nintendo.

“It’s a good question,” Imamura replied via an interpreter. “Yes, maybe, but having said that, if you look at Tears of the Kingdom there’s a character in that who isn’t Tingle, but kind of has the elements of Tingle in them.

“My angle on that is I think that’s the developers, rather than taking Tingle as is, they’re respecting the original work and working him into that new world.”

Imamura then continued: “Actually, one more thing to add to that – the Zelda movie has been announced, so I’m really curious as to whether Tingle is going to be in that or not. From my perspective, I would really love him to appear.”

We then asked Imamura who should play Tingle, should he make an appearance in the film.

“Masi Oka,” he replied. “You know the TV series Heroes? The Japanese character who goes ‘yatta!’, I’d like him to do it.”

Nintendo announced last year that a live-action film based on The Legend of Zelda is in the works.

The film will be produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, representative director and fellow of Nintendo, and veteran Hollywood producer Avi Arad, the former chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment.

It will be produced by Nintendo and Arad Productions, and directed by Wes Ball, the director behind the Maze Runner trilogy and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

In an interview earlier this year, Ball said he wanted to make the Zelda movie “something serious and cool, but fun and whimsical“.