New STREET FIGHTER Featurette: Game Director Teases “They Managed Something Very Difficult in a Really Smart Way”
A new behind-the-scenes featurette for the upcoming Street Fighter movie is giving fans a better idea of what director Kitao Sakurai and the cast are aiming for with the long-awaited video game adaptation.
While the first trailer made the movie look a little goofy, the people actually making it say the goal is to deliver something that feels true to the games.
And based on what Capcom’s own Takayuki Nakayama had to say after visiting the set, fans might have reason to feel hopeful.
During the featurette, Nakayama drops by the production while filming was underway last year. The cast greets him warmly, and it’s clear pretty quickly that many of them grew up playing the games.
The vibe on set seems less like a typical Hollywood adaptation and more like a group of fans finally getting the chance to bring these iconic fighters to life.
Andrew Koji, who plays Ryu, explains just how seriously they’re taking the characters. He says They’ll "do [their] best to honor the characters and bring them to life in the best way they've ever been before... ever."
After seeing the production for himself, Nakayama seemed genuinely impressed with what Sakurai and the team were building. The longtime Capcom director shared his thoughts in the featurette, saying:
"The director and everyone else involved in the production all love Street Fighter, and are fans just like us, which gives me great comfort."
He continued: "I think they've managed to accomplish something very difficult in a really smart way,"
The cast also shared their own history with the franchise. Callina Liang, who plays Chun-Li, said: "I played it on my PS4... PS5..."
Andrew Schulz, who takes on the role of Dan Hibiki, admitted: "I was obsessed with Street Fighter."
Meanwhile Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, who plays Balrog, offered a more chaotic strategy when it comes to gameplay: "I just hit the buttons so fast and see what happens,"
Along with Koji as Ryu, the film stars Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, Jason Momoa as Blanka, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Kyle Mooney as Marvin, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, Alexander Volkanovski as Joe, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Mel Jarnson as Cammy, and Eric André as Don Sauvage.
The script was written by Dalan Musson, who previously worked on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Captain America: Brave New World, not the best Marvel projects in the franchise, but I’m still excited to see how Street Fighter turns out! .
Of course, this isn’t the first attempt to bring the legendary fighting game franchise to theaters. The infamous 1994 Street Fighter movie starred Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile alongside Kylie Minogue as Cammy and Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li. Years later, 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li tried again with Kristin Kreuk in the lead role. Neither film landed well with critics or audiences.
That history makes this new adaptation all the more interesting. If Sakurai and his cast truly are the fans they claim to be, this might finally be the movie version of Street Fighter that players have been hoping for.
We’ll find out soon enough when Street Fighter hits theaters on October 16, 2026.