New ‘Street Fighter’ Film Is Coming From Capcom And Legendary

Most people know by now that I’m not just a guy who loves movies and professional wrestling, I’m also an old school gamer. And my classic game franchise of choice is Street Fighter, or just about any fighting game from Capcom. For me, this time is exciting because of the June release of Street Figher 6 which looks incredible. But there’s other news to get hyped about, because Capcom has announced that a new Street Fighter movie is also on the way.

Details are slim, “with more news to come in the future” about all they would say. We do know that it’ll be a co-production with Legendary, who attained the film and TV rights just days ago.

The Street Fighter franchise is the big daddy of all fighting games. It began in 1987 but really took off in 1991 with Street Fighter II, setting the standard for one-on-one that many would try and emulate. There would be no Mortal Kombat, no Tekken, or countless others without Street Fighter. Personally, the high water mark for it was Street Fighter Alpha, or the team-based spinoff Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but I’m biased because I was good at those.

But Street Fighter also led to a number of movies based on the game, as well. The best, for sure, being the anime Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Live-action adaptations have not fared so well. Also released in 1994 was the critically-panned movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile, the late Raul Julia as M. “For me, it was Tuesday” Bison, and Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li. Speaking of “the Chun”, she was the centerpiece of a terrible 2009 movie starring Smallville‘s Kristin Kruk and Chris Klein in one of the worst acting performances you’ll ever see.

This is an especially good time for video game adaptations, so the expectations will be sky high for a Street Fighter movie. Nintendo looks to have a massive hit with their genuinely-great Super Mario Bros Movie, while HBO’s The Last of Us is the most popular show on TV right now.

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Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.