Street Fighter accused of 'recycling nostalgia' after new trailer - but game franchise won't care
The gloves are off (or should that be on?), and in a year that's unusually packed with video game movies, Kitao Sakurai's Street Fighter is coming out swinging.
As one of Capcom's most lucrative gaming franchises, Street Fighter is still going strong some 39 years after we first stepped into arcades to play the original.
We're still getting updates to 2023' s Street Fighter 6 in 2026, and let's be honest, we doubt it'll be long until Street Fighter 7 gets the official nod.
Going head-to-head with the likes of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Street Fighter is also taking on a much closer rival when Mortal Kombat 2 hits cinemas in May 2026.
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The latest trailer for Street Fighter has dropped, but clearly, it'll take more than roles for Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns piggybacking off WrestleMania hype to lure audiences to this film.
Who is in Street Fighter (2026)?
Just like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has landed big names like Brie Larson and Glen Powell, video game movies continue to nab some impressive talent. Back when the first Street Fighter movie hit screens all the way back in 1994, it was Jean-Claude Van Damme who took the lead as Colonel William F. Guile.
This time around, attention has shifted to Noah Centineo's Ken Masters, although Damian Chapa played the character back in '94.
Alongside Centineo, a veritable galaxy of stars are portraying some very familiar faces for fans of Capcom's brutal brawler. Set in 1993, the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits Ken and Ryu (Andrew Koji) for the next World Warrior Tournament. Promising an ensemble of fists, fate, and fury, David Dastmalchian portrays the villainous M. Bison, Eric André is Don Sauvage, and Jason Momoa is flexing his muscles as Blanka.
Elsewhere, the formidable forces of Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns have added some serious beef as Guile and Akuma, while Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson is playing Balrog.
Street Fighter fans already seem split on whether Sakurai's movie will be a box office smash or be dragged down by the looming 'video game movie curse'.
Replying to the trailer, one supporter cheered: "Looks wildly ridiculous, goofy and over the top in all the right ways😭."
Another added: "Hadouken! This trailer looks straight out of the arcade. Momoa as a villain? Ken & Ryu vibes hitting different 🔥."
Others were less impressed with a third musing: "This shh looks pointless out of all the video games with actual storylines they picked this why..."
Someone else concluded: "At this point they're just recycling nostalgia and hope we won't notice. October 16 for another reboot that no one asked for."
What legacy do the Street Fighter movies have?
Of course, this isn't our first shot at Street Fighter. As well as Van Damme, Steven E. de Souza's Street Fighter famously starred Ming-Na Wen and Kylie Minoque, also going down in history for being Raúl Juliá's final movie
Despite boasting an abysmal 20% audience score and just 11% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it's become a cult classic and earned a loyal fandom over the years. In 2003, there was talk of a sequel involving Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, and Holly Valance, but in the end, that never happened.
Instead, Street Fighter returned to the silver screen for 2009's Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which was a box office disaster and debuted to even worse reviews than the first. As for 1994's Street Fighter, its legacy lives on. A 2024 Capcom shareholder meeting confirmed the movie still makes tens of millions of yen each year.
Even though there are naysayers when it comes to the 2026 reboot, we imagine 1994's movie will rake in even more money as curious gamers flock to watch the OG.