Patricia Summersett, the voice of Princess Zelda in four Legend of Zelda games – Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Hyrule Warriors spin-offs Age of Calamity and Age of Imprisonment – can “write in Twilight Princess Hylian”.
Casually dropping the information into conversation with IGN, Summersett said she taught herself how to write using the Hylian alphabet “over coffee” while recording Breath of the Wild.
“It’s something I did early on when I was recording [Breath of the Wild] and I was just starting to look through [series companion book] Hyrule Historia at the different versions of the languages from all the previous games,” she said.
“Obviously, Breath of the Wild wasn’t out yet, so I didn’t know what would be in that game. But I saw Twilight Princess Hylian, and it’s so beautiful. I thought I could probably learn those characters, which is essentially just the alphabet, and started practising that over coffee. So now I can kind of write fluently and use it all the time.”
A couple of years ago, Summersett revealed that she’d interpreted Link and Zelda’s friendship as “being in a relationship”, before clarifying she did not mean to imply they were a romantic couple. A few months after that, Nintendo said it was “up to the player’s imagination” to interpret the relationship.
Asked to comment once again on the issue, Summersett was cautious, saying: “I have to be so careful when I answer that question. Let me formulate this… I have all sorts of personal theories about what this might be, but I think there’s something beautiful in the way that it’s left ambiguous, it’s left in a kind of — if there are romantic undertones, it’s left in an unrequited state.
“There’s obviously a deep friendship and a protectorship between the two of them. It’s a gorgeous relationship and it continues to evolve and be left open in so many iterations of this.”
As for the live-action movie? Summersett said she thinks we’re “going to see a strong Zelda. I’m sure you’re going to see a powerful lead character in Zelda. And Link I have no idea, is he going to speak? They certainly haven’t alluded to the fact that he does, yet”.
Filming for that aforementioned Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda adaptation began last November in New Zealand, and is expected to run until April next year. The film is due to release on 7th May, 2027. Link and Princess Zelda will be played by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Bo Bragason, respectively, and is coming to Netflix after its “theatrical and home entertainment release periods”.
