The movie adapting the iconic Nintendo franchise The Legend of Zelda has found its Link, but the actor’s name may not be immediately familiar. Although he is not the тιтle character in the Zelda games, Link is the protagonist of the franchise and generally the primary playable character.

The upcoming Legend of Zelda live-action movie is being directed by Wes Ball (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) and is currently set to debut on May 7, 2027. As pre-production begins to ramp up in earnest, on July 16, it was officially announced that Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will be taking on the iconic role of Link.

Benjamin Evan Ainsworth’s Movie & TV Career, Explained

He Was The Face Of A Mike Flanagan Netflix Show

The most notable project to star Benjamin Evan Ainsworth was also his breakout role. The young actor portrayed Miles Wingrave in Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor. The Mike Flanagan show was his spiritual sequel to his well-regarded supernatural horror drama The Haunting of Hill House.

Bly Manor adapted the iconic 1898 Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw, in which Miles is one of the most important characters and must be portrayed by a young star capable of careful fine-tuning. In fact, just months before the series debuted in 2020, Miles had been portrayed by Stranger Things‘ Finn Wolfhard in the movie The Turning.

In the story, Miles is a young boy who is under the tutelage of a new governess. While Miles’ actions at first seem like normal pre-pubescent misbehavior, she soon begins to suspect he may be possessed by the ghost of the malicious former groundskeeper.

However, Miles isn’t Ainsworth’s only important role in a prominent project. See a full rundown of his post-Bly Manor career below:

Ainsworth’s most prominent role outside of Bly Manor is undoubtedly voicing the тιтle character of 2022’s Pinocchio, a live-action remake of the classic 1940 Disney movie of the same name that was directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) and starred Tom Hanks as Geppetto, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, and Cynthia Erivo as The Blue Fairy.

However, he has also played the lead character of the Canadian comedy series Son of a Critch opposite Malcolm McDowell and appeared in the 2025 dramedy movie Everything’s Going to Be Great, which boasts a star-studded cast that includes Oscar winner Allison Janney, Oscar nominee Bryan Cranston, and Avatar: The Way of Water star Jack Champion.

Ainsworth will also be appearing in another star-studded movie that will most likely arrive before The Legend of Zelda premieres. That movie is Cary Joji Fukunaga’s upcoming adaptation of the Jo Nesbø crime thriller Blood on Snow, which also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Eva Green, Ben Mendelsohn, Emma Laird, and Benedict Cumberbatch.