When Nintendo teased a sequel to Breath of the Wild at the end of yesterday’s Direct, it left everyone with one big question: Can you play as Zelda? Legendary series producer Eiji Aonuma knows the answer. He’s just not saying.


“A lot of people have been asking that, and so I want to ask you, why do people think that?” Aonuma said when I asked him this morning during an E3 interview on the second floor of Nintendo’s booth at the Los Angeles Convention Center. He spoke through an English-Japanese translator.

“Well it seems like it’d make sense, because at the end of Breath of the Wild she was freed, so now she can be a protagonist,” I said. “Also, I think people have wanted it for a long time.”


“I see,” said Aonuma. Then he laughed. “But I can’t tell you.”

“So why are you asking me that if you can’t tell me?” I said, also laughing. “I feel like if I’m going to answer, you should have to answer my question.”



“Well you’ve been asking so many more questions, you know?” he said. “One question, I hope you’ll look past that.”

A few minutes later, I tried to get tricky, asking him how many playable characters there are in this sequel to one of the greatest games ever made. Sadly, he saw past my journalistic Jedi trick. “I can’t say,” Aonuma said.


We’ll have more from Aonuma in the coming days, and lots more from the show floor here at E3—just don’t expect any tangible information about the Breath of the Wild sequel, sadly.