Although videogame adaptations have traditionally been absolute muck, it feels like Hollywood is only now beginning to get a grasp on how to make them.

The relative success of 'Pokemon Detective Pikachu' and 'Sonic The Hedgehog', compared to other adaptations, has meant that there's now reason to be hopeful that some of the most well-known IPs in gaming might make the move to television.

All the way back in 2015, however, Netflix was ahead of the game - no pun intended - when rumours began circulating that a live-action adaptation of 'Legend of Zelda' was in the works. Of course, it's 2021 now and it's never materialised - but the question remains as to what happened, as the thing appeared to be over before it began.

In an interview with the Serf Times podcast, which was eventually picked by Eurogamer, the reason for Nintendo halting the intended series was down to leaks. According to US comedian Adam Conover, who worked for CollegeHumour at the time, Nintendo didn't take kindly to leaks. CollegeHumour were apparently getting ready to work on a claymation series based on 'StarFox', but that along with 'Legend of Zelda' were cancelled abruptly.

Why? According to Conover, someone at Netflix leaked the story to the media, "they weren't supposed to talk about it, Nintendo freaked out... and they pulled the plug on everything, the entire programme to adapt these things."

Conover's story does seem legitimate for a few reasons. The story that originally circulated back in 2015 came from the Wall Street Journal, but then Nintendo confirmed a short time after this that it wasn't going to happen - but never gave any specific reasons why.

Would Nintendo cancel an entire programme of adaptations just because someone talked to the press about it before the official announcement? Yeah, probably.

Nintendo were burned pretty badly back in the early '90s when 'Super Mario Bros.' crashed and burned at the box office. The movie was so bad, and Nintendo felt that mistreated by the whole thing, that they refused point-blank to allow any of their characters or properties to be adapted again.

Nintendo are, last we heard, still working away with Illumination on an animated movie based on Super Mario, but so far, there's been nothing on it other than a release date of 2022.

Still, you have to wonder if a 'Legend of Zelda' live-action TV show might have worked at all? Trying to make it 'Game of Thrones' for a family audience doesn't sound all that promising, to be honest.