Street Fighter (2026)

Street Fighter (2026)

Starring: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian, Andrew Shulz, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jason Mamoa, Mel Jarnson, Orville Peck
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Action Director: Anthony Rinna

Street Fighter was announced in 2023, almost three whole decades since Hollywood’s original attempt to adapt the insanely-popular video game had disappointed audiences everywhere—I do concede that the film has developed a certain cult following over the years and that it was reasonably successful at the box office, at least by lead actor Jean-Claude Van Damme’s standards. The original idea was to have horror filmmakers The Philippou Brothers direct. About a year later, it was announced they had left the project due to scheduling concerns. By September of 2024, Kitao Sakurai, whose career highlights included episodes of Twisted Metal, was announced as director.

In any case, people in my community were hopeful that this would be a reasonably serious martial arts film, much like in the vein of the live-action Mortal Kombat films, albeit hopefully without the original character serving as the Audience Proxy. Then the casting announcements started coming in early 2025. Former teen actor Noah Centineo as Ken. Andrew Koji as Ryu. Okay, hit and miss. Jason Mamoa as Blanca. Relative unknown Callina Liang as Chun Li. Oh, okay.

Then the casting started going off the rails. In June 2025, we learned the South African country singer Orville Peck was cast as Vega…on the basis that he was known for wearing a mask at his concerts. WTF? That was followed by rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson being cast as Balrog. Then comedian Andrew Shulz was cast as Dan Habiki…and all of us started wondering if this was going to be parody. Then two professional wrestlers—Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes—were cast as Akuma and Guile, respectively. By this point, this was looking like it might become Legendary’s “Taste the Golden Spray.”

Around April or May of this year, the first trailer was released. And it was clear what the filmmakers were going for: high camp. All of the color, the costumes, and crazy hair styles of the video games were there. The special moves were there. But the trailer gave us a glimpse of Ken Masters singing “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes (which turns out to be an integral part of the story). And it appeared that this movie, like many blockbusters, was going to suffer from “Joss Whedon Syndrome” in that every character interaction would be a build-up to a punchline or a sight gag. Nonetheless, the visual elements were enough to intrigue me.

So, how was the final film?

It was…a thing.

To be serious, it was “pretty good.” It accomplishes what it sets out to do, but the question is whether it should have been doing that in the first place.

The film opens with an anime sequence of the 1987 World Warrior Championship, in which newcomer Ryu is pitted against reigning champion Sagat. Although Sagat initially has Ryu against ropes, Ryu turns the tables by tapping into the power of the Hadou, much to his master’s chagrin. You see, in this Universe, the Hadou works like The Force in Star Wars: if you have it, you’d better learn to control it, otherwise you’ll become a demon like Master Bokken’s first student, Akuma. And Ryu has enough envy in his heart and negative stuff in his past to make him a liability if he taps too much into it.

We then switch to live action, moving forward to 1993 (the soundtrack is all 90s R&B and hip hop, though some of the songs used came out after ’93). Ryu has since disappeared after his Master was mysteriously murdered. And his martial brother, Ken Masters, has become something of an MTV celebrity and is quickly losing his MA cred. Meanwhile, in the Southeast Asian country of Shadaloo (the capital city is called Metrolau), dictator M. Bison is performing experiments on “psycho power” by draining the life energy from the strongest men alive. Unfortunately, it’s not helping him very much. He decides that he needs the likes of Ryu to really make his experiment work, so he sets up another World Warrior tournament in hopes of coaxing Ryu out of hiding.

In his employee is Chun Li, who is actually an Interpol agent working undercover to find out what crimes against humanity the dictator is up to. She is sent out to recruit the world’s strongest fighters to participate in the tournament. Those would include Russian strongman Zangief (Olivier Richters, of Black Widow), American Air Force pilot Guile, Japanese sumo wrestler Honda; American boxer Balrog; Spanish(?) claw fighter Vega; Joe (UFC fighter Alex Volkanovski); Indian yoga master Dhalsim (Bollywood action actor Vidyut Jammwal); and Ken Masters. Although most people in that industry would object to Ken being included, it is actually a shrewd move on Chun Li’s part.

You see, we learn through flashbacks (all flashbacks in the movie are done via anime) that the World Warrior Tournament has the unfortunate effect of calling the attention of Akuma, who is always waiting for a fitting opponent for him to fight. Back in ’87, Ryu’s victor brought Akuma to his school, where the same murdered Master Boken. This created a rift between him and Ken, which the latter hasn’t gotten over yet. But when Chun Li finally finds Ryu and informs him that Ken will be participating, that alarms Ryu. Because if Ken somehow (given his current physical state) manages to win, that will bring Akuma a-calling. And since Ken never learned how to throw a Hadouken, winning the tournament would be the same thing as Ken signing his own death warrant.

So, by the time the tournament is underway, we have several character motivations set up. Chun Li is biding her time until she can get close enough to Bison to try to stop him. Ryu wants to protect Ken. Ken wants to win for the honor of his deceased master, plus his own ego. And Bison is willing to separate Ryu from the tournament if it means he can drain him of his Hadou energy.

Plot-wise, Street Fighter feels a lot like the Street Fighter Alpha anime from 2000, but with M. Bison in the role of Dr. Sadler. Both of those films combine a man’s attempt to harness the energy of the world’s fighters for his own means, while the heroes are fighting for Ryu’s soul. The opening anime sequence is definitely a nod to the 1994 anime movie and there are a few callbacks to the ’94 live action film, too (mainly a few in-jokes regarding M. Bison). The main protagonists who get sidelined are Guile and Dhalsim, although the ending suggests that they’ll have a bigger role if a sequel gets made. Spoiler: the film leaves one major plot thread completely unresolved and ends on a cliffhanger.

The strange thing about the movie is its tone. The entire film is just as campy as the trailer suggested it was and the film is often more of a comedy than a martial arts fantasy. For much of the movie, Ken is the butt of jokes (there is a running gag between him and the tournament’s announcer, played by comedian Eric André (who has collaborated with the director in the past) and only really becomes a serious character in the last act. Jason Mamoa’s portrayal of Blanca establishes him as this fearsome beast whom everybody is afraid of, but then acts like a big Teddy bear to people whom he decides he likes. The biggest in-joke is the resolution of the tournament, which is laughably absurd to anyone familiar with the games.

Speaking of the tournament, I was disappointed with the way the tournament was portrayed. The focus is on Ken throughout this portion of the narrative, which ultimately results in three fights taking place offscreen. That means we don’t get to see Guile fight Vega or Dhalsim take on Zangief. Boo, people! Boo! I understand on one level that the story wanted emphasize Bison’s plans and Ryu’s fight against himself more than the tournament, but we fans still want to see our favorites fighting (and not just at a random bar fight).

Speaking of fighting, I was a little disappointed with the fights. They were staged by Anthony Rinna, whose credits as a fight choreographer include The Blue Beetle (one of the DCU films made after audiences largely stopped caring about the DCU) and A Minecraft Movie. He also worked as an assistant fight director on Thor: Love and Thunder and Mortal Kombat ’22. The fights are often more focused on showing us the characters performing their special moves, and even basic attacks as they appear in the games, then inserting them into actual choreography. This is especially apparent in the Ryu vs. Blanca fight.

The highlight is a sequence at the beginning of the third act where Ryu and Ken fight their way out of prison through dozens of guards—often shot in a way that makes it look like side-scroller beat’em up—which is intercut with Chun Li taking on both Vega and Julie (world champion martial artist Rayna Valladingham). This sequence finds the best balance between actual fight choreography and techniques we see in the games. A later fight between Ken and Ryu is also pretty good.

I do hope this movie does well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel. If only because I hate the idea of movies ending in a way that makes a sequel necessary for the narrative to be concluded, only to not be filmed because not enough people watched the original in the first place. That said, I only found it to be “good,” but not great. I think Mortal Kombat 2 definitely won the contest of best fighting game adaptation of 2026.