Street Fighter (2026 film)

Summarize Fact Check

In 1987, Japanese-born Ryu defeats Sagat in the first World Warrior tournament using Dark Hadou, attracting the attention of the demon Akuma. Shortly afterward, Akuma murders his older brother and Ryu's mentor, Gouken, to provoke Ryu into unleashing his Satsui no Hadou or Dark Hadou. The incident drives Ryu and his adoptive brother, Ken Masters, apart, and Ryu disappears from the martial arts world.

Six years later, M. Bison, dictator of Shadaloo, organizes the second World Warrior tournament in Metrolao City to draw Ryu out of hiding. Chun-Li, an undercover Interpol agent seeking revenge for her father's murder at Bison's hands, recruits Ryu, Ken, and other fighters from around the world. Ryu initially declines to participate, but Akuma threatens to destroy the tournament's winner unless Ryu enters. Fearing that Ken will win, Ryu travels to Metrolao to dissuade his brother, who refuses to listen. Ryu defeats E. Honda to take his place in the tournament. The night before the competition, the fighters brawl in a bar before Bison's soldiers incapacitate them and take Ryu to Bison's spire.

During the tournament, Vega defeats Guile, while Ken defeats boxer Balrog. At the spire, Bison offers Ryu a position in his empire. When Ryu refuses, Bison forces him to fight Blanka in prison while using a device to extract his fighting power. Unable to avoid the confrontation, Ryu unleashes a Hadouken that destroys the prison walls and overloads the device, allowing Blanka to escape.

Before his next match, Ken learns from Chun-Li about Bison's plans for Ryu. After defeating Dhalsim in the semifinals, Ken abandons the tournament to rescue his brother, but both are captured. Ken awakens to find Ryu strapped to the extraction device. As Bison activates it, Blanka breaks into the room and frees Ryu. Meanwhile, Chun-Li confronts Bison in his office. He sends Vega and his bodyguard Juli to fight her, but she defeats both before Bison incapacitates her with his Psycho Crusher attack.

Reunited, Ryu and Ken argue over their estrangement. Ryu admits that he resented Ken's optimism and destroyed Ken's invitation to the first tournament out of jealousy. The brothers fight until Ryu defeats Ken with a Hadouken.

Back at the tournament, kickboxer Joe is declared the champion after Ken fails to appear. True to his promise, Akuma arrives and easily kills Joe before confronting Ryu. Overwhelmed by Akuma, Ryu transforms into his corrupted persona, Dark Ryu,^[a] and defeats Akuma. Ken, Chun-Li, and Ken's manager, Dan Hibiki, attempt to stop Ryu, but he proves too powerful. Ken ultimately incapacitates him with a Flaming Hadouken, which he unleashes for the first time, restoring Ryu to normal.

Bison orders Cammy and his troops to retrieve Akuma's body. Cammy destroys Chun-Li's van with a rocket launcher, preventing the heroes from pursuing them. The following day, Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Dan leave Shadaloo with Guile and Dhalsim providing transportation, the group deciding to work together to take down Bison. Meanwhile, a scarred Sagat receives a visit from Bison and his remaining lieutenants.

The character El Fuerte appears portrayed by Christian Valle. Sagat makes a cameo via animation in the prologue and mid-credits scene. Additionally, streamers Maximilian Dood, LazarBeam, Lachlan, and Bubbell, professional fighting game players Justin Wong and IFC Yipes, artist BossLogic and internet personality Nathan Lust make cameo appearances as Bison's inmates. Danny and Michael Philippou, who were originally signed to direct, have cameos as fictionalized versions of themselves.^[5][6][7]

Development

In April 2023, Legendary Entertainment purchased the live-action film and television rights to the Street Fighter video game series by Capcom. It would be the third live-action adaptation, following Street Fighter (1994) by Universal Pictures and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) by 20th Century Fox.^[8] The brothers Danny and Michael Philippou were in talks to direct.^[9] In June 2024, they dropped out to direct Bring Her Back (2025).^[10] In February 2025, Kitao Sakurai was hired to direct.^[11]

Casting

Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Jason Momoa, Roman Reigns, Orville Peck and Callina Liang were cast in June 2025.^[12][13] Shortly thereafter, 50 Cent confirmed that he had been cast as Balrog,^[14] and Andrew Schulz joined as Dan Hibiki.^[15] In July, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Hirooki Goto, and Vidyut Jammwal joined as M. Bison, Guile, E. Honda, and Dhalsim.^{[16][17][18][19]} In September, Eric André, Olivier Richters, Mel Jarnson, Rayna Vallandingham, Alexander Volkanovski and Kyle Mooney were announced.^[20] Near the film's release in October 2026, Don Lee was announced as the voice of Gouken in animated flashback sequences.^[21]

To prepare for her role as Chun-Li, Liang trained daily in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Wushu for approximately two hours, focusing on leg strength. She adopted a rigorous bulking diet that involved consuming 12 eggs per day and eating every two hours, which she said made her nauseated. By the end of filming, each of her thighs had increased in size by 6.5 centimeters (2.6 in).^[22]

Filming and post-production

Principal photography began in Australia on August 18, 2025, under the working title Punch, with Ken Seng as the cinematographer.^[14][23] Filming wrapped on November 12.^[24] The visual effects were provided by Digital Domain, DNEG, Framestore, Niche VFX and Od Studios!, with Sandra Balej as visual effects supervisor.^[25] Titmouse, Inc. created the animated flashback sequences.^[26]

Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson composed the score, having previously collaborated with Sakurai on the Twisted Metal series.^[27] The film also includes two original songs by the band Health: "Negative Edge" and "Brainrot".^[28] The soundtrack album was released digitally by Milan Records on October 16, 2026.^[29]

On February 2, 2026, Legendary appointed Hasbro as the global master toy licensee for the film.^[30] A graphic novel anthology would be^{[clarification needed]} published by Legendary Comics featuring five stories set before the events of the film. One of the stories featuring Bison would be written by David Dastmalchian who portrays him in the film. A crowdfunding campaign was launched on September 9, 2026, on Kickstarter.^[31]

Street Fighter was released in the US by Paramount Pictures on October 16, 2026, in IMAX.^[32][20][33] It was scheduled for March 20, 2026, by Sony Pictures Releasing as part of their previous deal with Legendary, but was taken off the schedule less than a year before its release, after Legendary's deal with Sony expired in November 2024.^[34][35] In August 2025, Paramount was in talks to distribute after signing a deal with Legendary.^[36] In September, they gained distribution rights.^[33] In October 2026, Sakurai said a sequel was being written, with its development depending on audience reception.^[37]

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Box office

As of October 18, 2026^[update], Street Fighter has grossed $31 million in the United States and Canada, and $20.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $51.1 million.^[3]

In the United States and Canada, Street Fighter was released alongside Whalefall, You Can See Everything, and Sense and Sensibility, and was projected to gross $25–35 million from 3,575 theaters in its opening weekend.^[38] It made $13 million on its first day, and went on to debut to $31 million, topping the box office.^[39]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 40% of 113 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "The latest iteration of Street Fighter has plenty of affection for its source material and doesn't lack for dizzying style, but its incoherent storytelling and juvenile humor make for a disappointing regression in video game adaptation."^[40] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned Street Fighter a score of 44 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[41] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.^[39] It received a 65% definite recommend for kids under 12. 30% of the audience was Latino & Hispanic, 29% Caucasian, 21% Black, 14% Asian American and 6% Native American/Other.^[42]

Brandon Yu of The New York Times felt that "Street Fighter has a sturdy enough script to bear the load, even if it buckles a bit by the end" and credited its cast and the "punchy pyrotechnics of its fight sequences" as some of its strengths.^[43] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter surmised that "Street Fighter proved only sporadically entertaining" and criticized it for having a weak plot and "an ensemble of varying effectiveness".^[44]

Variety's Siddhant Adlakha said Street Fighter was "consistently funny" but "becomes disastrously scattered, between setups and payoffs at complete odds, confounding ADR, and a total lack of any actual conclusion".^[45] Jake Kleinman for Polygon said it was "one of the sloppiest, cringiest, and most incoherent films of the year" and, although praising some performances like that of David Dastmalchian and Cody Rhodes, criticized Callina Liang's "dramatic performance that feels out of place when she's going up against Dastmalchian’s zany energy".^[46]

Jake Coyle of the Associated Press called Street Fighter a step backward for adaptations of video games, writing that its "retrograde vibe — complete with leering shots of Liang's body — feels all the more out of step coming on the heels of more ambitious video game adaptations like Zach Cregger's Resident Evil".^[47] Tom Jorgensen of IGN praised the performances of the fighters, including Liang, Rhodes, and Orville Peck, and the comedians Eric André and Andrew Schulz, who Jorgensen called a "big surprise". He felt that Street Fighter was "dumber than a box of rocks ... [but] can be pretty fun with the right combination of enthusiastic friends and anarchic spirit".^[48]

• List of films based on video games