'Street Fighter' Shoryukens a Sneak Peek of Next Year’s Blockbuster
The stars of ‘Street Fighter’ surprise the audience at the Game Awards to debut the first look at the upcoming feature film, including each of the 17 iconic characters.
At the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, audiences attending the Game Awards were among the first to see the highly anticipated adaptation of Capcom’s iconic ‘Street Fighter’. Paramount Pictures and Legendary Pictures are bringing SF fans the latest cinematic adaptations following the ‘cult’ classic from the 90s, and the less-than-serviceable ‘Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li’. It has been proven in those adaptations that perhaps the property is difficult for studios to translate into a solid blockbuster, but fans are hopeful that this is the one that will win the tournament. The property has been near and dear to the hearts of gamers for generations, and arguably along with Mortal Kombat putting fighting games on the map in the early 90s.
The film takes place in 1993, as estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past, and if they don’t, it’s GAME OVER!
Helmed by director Kitao Sakurai, Street Fighter is set to bring the battle from the arcade to the big screen with Hadoukens, roundhouses, and all your favorite characters. The film stars an eclectic mix of stunt actors, wrestlers and even a hip hop icon turned thespian in ‘50 Cent’. Representing the fighters from across the globe, Street Fighter stars Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, Andrew Koji as Ryu, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoai as Akuma, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, Eric André as Don Sauvage with Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson as Balrog and Jason Momoa as Blanka.
Not to be ignored are tournament fighters Orville Peck as Vega, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Alexander Volkanovski as Joe, Mel Jarnson as Cammy and SNL alum Kyle Mooney as Marvin. All 17 of the iconic fighters were given beautiful and stylized character posters which aren’t shying away from a true representation of those characters. Fans have to admit, this is the best live action versions we’ve seen of over-the-top characters like Guile, Akuma, and especially Blanka.
The sneak peek doesn’t offer much in terms of plot, however the look of most of the characters seems to be ripped from the pixels of the original. What audience might be able to glean is the tone of the film. Once again, it seems like the filmmakers are airing on the side of camp, which may or may not work for this adaptation. The casting of David Dastmalchian as ultra-villain M. Bison as well as a handful of WWE’s finest might indicate that there will be a tongue-in-cheek tone, and setting the film in the early 90s certainly indicates the filmmakers are trying to set the stage to be a representation of those original games, but it will have to be determined later if that’s the case.