Let’s finish with a question that has been tormenting some big fans of the series: where does Breath of the Wild sit in the official timeline?

Eiji Aonuma: Actually, those timeline-related questions are difficult because we’ve never designed any Zelda games by saying “hey, we’re going to put that game here, we need to have it fit into this period or that one, etc.” That’s not what comes first for us. But indeed, once the game is released and we’ve been able to develop our story, we can tell each other “oh yes, we can make it fit here”, but that’s not important to us. Especially since there could be contradictions in every new game if we tried to follow the timeline. If we can put a game in the timeline, that’s great, but as for Breath of the Wild, we haven’t really decided where it belongs for now.

Source

Silly Aonuma! Doesn't he know how important the Zelda Timeline is?

Also I keep hearing theories that this game will be the flashpoint of the series and merge the timelines. I wonder how that is going to work.

It's soooooooooooooooooooooooo weird. Before the release of A Link Between Worlds they even released an infographic showing its place on the timeline, and now he's like "ah, we've not decided yet". WTF?!

Ugh, they need to just come out and say there really is no timeline at all. Period.

Well, okay.
Just call it a reboot and be done with it.

I dont know why people need a timeline for zelda its quite clear most of the games are just standalone titles

Who gives a FUCK about the STUPID Zelda timeline

No one cares about the timeline. There is none. Nintendo just put some together, because people were asking and made a big deal about it. But in fact there never was one.

The game references a lot of Zelda games, not just in easter-eggs, but it's still the most disconnected game in the franchise. The backstory kind of feels like a rewrite of the so-called downfall timeline starting from Ocarina of Time, but then there's inconsistencies with A Link to the Past. I guess BotW could also replace the original NES game in the timeline, but I'm not sure if one should just erase a whole game from existence. Or it's some time long after any of the otger games but I don't know...

Either way, it all doesn't really matter one bit though.

There is a Zelda timeline? Please tell me there isn't.