In an interview with the French publication Liberation, Nintendo producer Eiji Aonuma commented on the next installment in the series for GameCube, and confirmed that a DS Zelda title is underway.
Aonuma, who was the level designer for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and directed the follow-up Majora"s Mask, is currently overseeing the new GameCube Legend of Zelda. "I"m two-hundred percent involved in its development," he told the publication.
Shigeru Miyamoto"s right-hand man was slim on details about the game. "The next episode in the Zelda series for GameCube is already coming, but I can"t say absolutely anything about it," he explained. "You know the deal -- even the title and theme are still secret."
However, he did confirm two never-before-known facts about the project. "The next grand Zelda game, which follows chronologically after the Wind Waker, will be released at the end of 2005 in Japan," Aonuma revealed. The late 2005 release date in Japan would indicate that a simultaneous launch in the US could be planned.