Aonuma: Hyrule Warriors is Not Part of the Main Canon

When it comes to comics and films, both use the same source material but often diverge into what some call the comic canon and the movie canon. Hyrule Warriors is a new Zelda game that takes elements from Zelda but uses it in a way that just doesn’t quite work in the Zeldaverse we’re so familiar with, and Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma is not one to overlook this small fact.

In an interview with Eiji Aonuma, it was confirmed that Hyrule Warriors is indeed not part of the main Zelda timeline. Relating it to the film The Avengers, Aonuma stated that while there is a connection between Hyrule Warriors and the Zeldaverse, Hyrule Warriors is moreover part of a different dimension. This is unlike Majora’s Mask which Aonuma states, while in a different dimension, is part of the main timeline. Looks like Link was never dead after all.

Is Hyrule Warriors canon? Does it fit in the Zelda timeline?

Aonuma: Within the Zelda canon, there is the timeline, but there has always been the sense of the main story and kind of a side story. Like, Majora’s Mask might be considered part of that, though it does exist as part of the timeline. With Hyrule Warriors, there is a link between the two, but it exists as a separate dimension, so it doesn’t exist as part of the main canon. Lately I have been thinking of it similar to The Avengers.

Each of the characters has their own timeline, so there shouldn’t be any crossover there, but maybe they’ve been brought together as part of that story?

So it doesn’t slot anywhere in the timeline that we know of?

Aonuma: Maybe if you force it in somewhere, but that’s not something we want to do. The universe of Hyrule Warriors really is sort of a different universe and it is connected to the timeline of the Zelda series, but it is connected to several different games throughout the series. If you try and force this into it here [Aonuma places his hands in the air indicating different levels of the timeline], then…that information might not be complete. We really don’t want to put it in the timeline because it has links to the different parts of the timeline.

You all know what this means, don’t you? Ganon vs. Demise is something that could very well happen! Who knows, if there’s enough interest we might see more entries in this new dimension.

Source: GameInformer