History of the Zelda Timeline

Historically, the Zelda Timeline has been an afterthought with respect to game development. It was not pre-planned and has grown incrementally with each new release, often being re-arranged to accommodate new titles. An official overarching timeline was not laid out in full until was first released in 2011. Prior to the release of, the overall timeline was the subject of numerous fan theories.

This article details the evolution of the timeline—and its fan intepretations—throughout the series' history.

1986-1993
The first decade of the series saw four releases from 1986 to 1993. With so few games, the timeline remained relatively straightforward.
 * is the original game of the series, first released in Japan in 1986.
 * is released as a direct sequel to the original, set some years later.
 * is released as a prequel to the original . Its main characters are described as the predecessors of the Link and Zelda from the first two titles.
 * is released as a direct sequel to according to its official Japanese site.

The timeline complications begin with the next wave of releases five years later.

1998-2001
In 1998, is released as a prequel to. Nintendo purports the game to be a retelling of the Imprisoning War in the backstory of. However the actual events of do not fully align with the Imprisoning War. In an interview on the chronology however, Miyamoto refers to the order as being, , and then , with  occurring at any time after.

In 2000, is released as a direct sequel of  but has a minimal impact on the timeline, taking place in a parallel world.

In 2001, and  are released. The Triforce plays a central role in the plot and Ganon is still the ultimate villain, but the games have copious extremely unsubtle foreshadowing to.

Also in 2001, releases a timeline of the first eight games on Zelda Universe. This timeline has the games in the following order:, , , , , and  (with  occurring during the point in  where Link crosses to Eastern Hyrule). All of the games are purported to involve the same Link, to explain this discrepancy, this timeline has it that time passes differently in Termina, so when Link returned to Hyrule hundreds of years had passed. This timeline is not recognized to be canonical due to lack of involvement from the developers.

2002-2011
In 2002 and 2003, is released as a distant-future sequel to. It takes place in a time after a Great Flood washes away Hyrule completely, an event that upheaves the timeline. The game does not recognize the events of, which would have occurred between and.

In 2006, is released as yet another sequel to, ostensibly contradicting. Shortly after, producer Eiji Aonuma officially declares the existence of two parallel timelines resulting from Link's time travel in. is stated to occur in the "Child Link Timeline" while occurs in the "Adult Link Timeline".

In the meantime, from 2002 to 2005,, , and are released. The games form their own plot featuring Vaati as the primary villain and the Four Sword as the holy grail instead of the Triforce. is a distant prequel to. , at the time, is presented as a direct sequel to. ties into the greater series by re-introducing Ganon as the ultimate villain behind Vaati's power. However, the game's placement in the timeline—in either of the two branches—is unclear at the time. The same is true for and the other three titles preceding.

From 2007 to 2009, and  are released as sequels to.

SS undefined is released in 2011 and is placed at the very beginning of the timeline.

2011–Present
Shortly after SS -, a full account of the timeline is released in. It attempts to resolve the contradictions by contriving a third timeline branch where Link is defeated by Ganon in.

The so-called Fallen Hero Timeline accounts for the events of, , and , , and  in that order. Later, in, this timeline branch is re-arranged to account for and , which are placed directly after  and. is once again placed directly after.

places and  after SS - at the beginning of the timeline. is shoehorned into the Child Timeline as its latest games.

In, the events that occurred in Hyrule's early history are described to have faded into myth. The timeline begins anew with.