Street Fighter is one of the most iconic video game franchises of all time, especially in the fighting game genre. Thanks to this iconic status, the series has already received two film adaptations in the past. However, the upcoming Street Fighter movie is very likely to not resemble these previous efforts much at all.
Street Fighter is currently scheduled for release in March 2026, after news of the project first began to circulate early last year. Legendary recently acquired the film and television rights to the franchise and is reportedly co-developing the new Street Fighter movie alongside producers at Capcom. Although the series has a rocky history with movie adaptations, this next project may finally break that trend.
Capcom's Upcoming Street Fighter Movie Has a Lot of Potential
The History of Street Fighter Movie Adaptations
The first live-action Street Fighter movie was released in 1994 and was instantly met with harsh critical reception despite relative commercial success. Although it was pretty standard action fare, it was seen as a dramatic departure from the source material. In fact, Street Fighter (1994) is largely responsible for the negative reputation that video game movies picked up in the following years.
The next Street Fighter movie certainly didn't do this reputation any favors either. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li was released in 2009, and did little to address the criticism that plagued the first film. The Legend of Chun-Li much more closely resembles a martial arts film, but still lacks much of the heart and style that are inherent to Street Fighter. The film was considered a major misstep both critically and commercially, and this negative reception left fans with little hope that Street Fighter would receive another adaptation any time soon.
Everything We Know So Far About Street Fighter (2026)
Capcom has almost certainly learned its lesson from these previous outings. Although Legendary has yet to officially release many details about Street Fighter (2026), the series' previous attempts at adaptation provide a decent blueprint for what the new film won't do. Likewise, video game movies have come a long way since 2009, and fans have plenty of room to be cautiously optimistic.
Besides its release window, not much is known about the upcoming Street Fighter movie. The film's narrative is nearly a complete mystery. While directly adapting the story of one of the games could potentially work, an original plot would no doubt be better suited to the big screen. After all, while Street Fighter lore certainly has depth, the story modes within any given fighting game are infamously thin.
Street Fighter characters are as iconic as they come, and this could provide meaningful speculation about the film's cast. Ryu will almost certainly serve as the film's protagonist, and his friendship with Ken could give the film a fun buddy flick feel. The original Street Fighter movie introduced original characters, and this approach isn't out of the question either. There is even the possibility that Luke could make an appearance to represent Street Fighter 6, but this seems less likely for one major reason.
The Street Fighter Movie May Need to Play it Safe
Street Fighter has a very rich history, but some sections of the franchise are certainly favored much more than others. The movie will likely cover events from an earlier game in the series, such as Street Fighter 2. This is simply the most iconic era of the series, and where the World Warriors were first introduced as the definitive fighting game cast they are known as today. Street Fighter 6 may be the most popular game in the series yet, but it's difficult to beat nostalgia when it comes to adapting a video game.
Recent Street Fighter games have shown their oldest combatants going through significant character progression, but many moviegoers would still more quickly recognize these characters in their original appearance. Previous Street Fighter films haven't struck home with fans of the series and weren't very palatable to general audiences either. Executives at Capcom have hopefully learned a lot of lessons from these previous attempts and will need to be very careful if they don't want to strike out.
Street Fighter 6
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91 /100 Critics Rec: 98%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- RE Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- PC, PS4, PS5, & Xbox Series X|S
- Franchise
- Street Fighter
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, Arcade
- Genre(s)
- Fighting
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
