One of the most iconic and successful fighting video game series of all-time will soon be Dragon Punching its way back onto the small and big screens as Legendary Entertainment, the studio behind Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune recently acquired the live-action TV and film rights to Street Fighter, according to a recent press release from the company. Legendary will work alongside the game’s publisher Capcom (also the makers of the Resident Evil and Monster Hunter franchises) for future undertakings.
Street Fighter, which saw its start in 1987, has made the live-action transition big screen before, with the most notable being the 1994 version starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel Guile, Raul Julia as M. Bison, Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li and Kylie Minogue as Cammy. Though the movie was not a critical success, it captured just enough of the original spirit of the wildly popular Street Fighter II game and infused it with enough ’90s camp, as well a more riveting than it had any right to be performance by Julia as Bison to make it a campy, entertaining popcorn movie at the very least.
Chun-Li from Street Fighter/Capcom
2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which starred Kristin Kreuk of Smallville fame in the titular role, unfortunately, didn’t have any of the silly, endearing charm that made the 1994 film somewhat of a cult darling; the film has a 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was described in an IGN review as “a mindless, soulless, mirthless affair, chock full of bad acting, bad dialog, and atrocious fight sequences.”
Can Legendary’s recent success with the Godzilla, King Kong and Dune franchises translate to a Sonic Boom of success for a whole new era of live-action Street Fighter films?
The next installment in the Capcom’s Street Fighter series, Street Fighter 6, is slated for release June 2, 2023 on Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via STEAM platforms.
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