Zelda Movie Casts Uli Latukefu as Ganondorf, Confirms Sam Neill’s Posthumous Role

Marcus Vale07/08/2026Updated 25/08/20264 min read

The live-action Legend of Zelda movie has finally found its Ganondorf. Deadline reported that Australian actor Uli Latukefu, best known for playing a young Dwayne Johnson in NBC’s Young Rock, has landed the villain role in Sony and Nintendo’s adaptation, with sources telling the outlet he has also signed a multi-picture deal for future instalments.

Sony/Nintendo’s ‘The Legend of Zelda’ has set Uli Latukefu for the villain role of Ganondorf, sources confirmed to Deadline. The casting was corroborated within hours by multiple outlets, including Kotaku and GosuGamers, marking the first confirmed antagonist for a production that has otherwise kept its cast under lock and key.

Latukefu Joins Ainsworth and Bragason as Zelda’s Third Named Lead

Latukefu becomes only the third actor officially tied to the film, following Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Bo Bragason, who were announced to be playing Link and Princess Zelda, respectively, in July 2025. Deadline’s report notes that Latukefu has signed a multi-picture deal, hinting that Sony is planning a Legend of Zelda trilogy.

The actor’s résumé stretches well beyond the sitcom that made him a household name. Best known for playing a young Dwayne Johnson in the sitcom Young Rock, which ran for three seasons on NBC, Latukefu has also been seen in films like Black Adam, Next Goal Wins, MaXXXine, the Prime Video series Countdown and more. He also holds a small but notable film credit from earlier in his career: he had previously appeared in the sitcom Young Rock and in a small role in Alien: Covenant.

Of Tongan heritage and based in Sydney, Latukefu trained at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art before breaking into film and television, giving the Ganondorf casting a distinctly Australasian flavour that will resonate with fans across the Tasman.

Sam Neill’s Final Role, Plus Dichen Lachman as Impa and Yvonne Strahovski

Latukefu’s casting arrived alongside a separate Deadline report confirming three more names for the production. The project, which wrapped in April, will mark one of Neill’s final screen performances, if not the last; it’s not yet clear who he plays. Neill died July 13 at 78.

Two further additions round out the newly revealed cast. Other new additions to the Zelda movie include Severance’s Dichen Lachman and The Handmaid’s Tale’s Yvonne Strahovski, with sources unclear on Strahovski’s role though she plays a queen character, while Lachman was cast as Impa, the bodyguard and advisor to Princess Zelda.

Deadline noted these castings, together with Latukefu’s, are especially significant given how tightly the production has been guarded. Castings for the Zelda tentpole have been very closely guarded: these, along with Latukefu’s, are the first to emerge since Nintendo announced the two leads last July.

April 30, 2027 Release Date Holds as Wes Ball’s Production Wrapped in April

The flurry of casting news lands with the film’s theatrical date locked in for April 30, 2027, after Nintendo creative fellow Shigeru Miyamoto moved the release forward from an earlier May 7 slot. Wes Ball, the director behind Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and the Maze Runner trilogy, is at the helm, with T.S. Nowlin: his collaborator on those earlier films, penning the screenplay.

Principal photography wrapped in April 2026, several months before Neill’s passing, meaning his scenes were already in the can. The Legend of Zelda movie has only really had two actors attached to it for several months, with Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Bo Bragason known to be starring as Link and Zelda, respectively; now, however, we have actors confirmed for Ganondorf and Impa, and reports that the late Sam Neill is also part of the film.

A Villain Nintendo Has Never Shown in Live Action

For long-time players, the pick carries extra weight because a human-form Ganondorf has never been rendered outside animation or the games themselves. Deadline’s framing of the character underscores the stakes of the casting, describing him as the franchise’s recurring threat to Hyrule: Ganondorf will once again play the role as Link and Princess Zelda’s primary threat in Hyrule, as he threatens to destroy the land’s peace, as he has done countless times before across Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise.

With Nintendo and Sony still withholding plot details, official images of Latukefu in costume, and confirmation of Strahovski’s and Neill’s exact characters, the studios appear to be sticking to the same slow-drip marketing playbook that preceded last year’s Link and Zelda reveals. For Kiwi and Australian audiences in particular, the film now carries a doubly local thread: an Australian actor as its central villain, and a late New Zealand screen icon making one of his final appearances in a story partly shot on home soil.