New ‘Street Fighter’ movie from Sony Pictures gets a release date

‘Street Fighter’ movie from 1994. Images from Universal Pictures and Capcom Co. Ltd.

Without a doubt, Street Fighter is one of the top three fighting games in the history of video games. Sometimes Street Fighter is ranked as number one, while at other times it falls to number two behind Tekken. On the other hand, Street Fighter has the longest history among fighting games and is the only game to host the biggest video game tournaments in the world, where the best Street Fighter gamers from across the globe compete against each other. This is proof of how important Street Fighter has become. It is played all over the world and brings communities together to determine who is the best among them, as they battle with their favorite Street Fighter characters.

Street Fighter has far transcended the realm of video games; it is a part of popular culture and a household name. Even people who have never played a Street Fighter game are familiar with its name and some of its fighters. The game itself and the fighters have ingrained themselves into the subconscious of most people who were already alive and aware when the first Street Fighter games were released.

Most of us still remember the Street Fighter (1994) movie that starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kylie Minogue, and the late Raul Julia in the roles of Guile, Cammy, and M. Bison, respectively. When I watched the movie, I found it neither great nor bad; it was mediocre. However, naturally, I believe they did the best they could with it at the time. The odds were stacked against them; if Street Fighter had to match the commercial and critical success of Mortal Kombat, which was released before it, the expectations for the average gamer may have been too high for Street Fighter to reasonably meet once it transitioned onto the big screen. Unfortunately, the result was only satisfactory for the first Street Fighter movie.

Indeed, complete outsiders from the entertainment industry often fail to realize the challenges of creating a superior, logical, and entertaining screenplay that can fit within a 90-minute to 2-hour timeframe. I have attempted to write several screenplays in the past, and I attribute the first strands of white hair on my head to them. Haha. When it comes to Street Fighter, how can you incorporate all the necessary characters, their respective origins, and the storyline in which they are all involved or in which most of them are involved? Much more complicated than it appears to be. Because of this, more people look back with appreciation at what the first Street Fighter live-action movie accomplished.

Now, with the announcement that a new Street Fighter movie from Sony Pictures will be released in March 2026, with Legendary co-producing and co-developing it with Capcom, there is excitement in the air for this one. This is because movies based on popular video games resonate with moviegoers. Therefore, it is likely that another live-action Street Fighter movie will be produced. In hindsight, it was never a question of if, but rather when it would happen.

Of course, we also have the massive global success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is currently ranked among the top 20 highest-grossing movies ever. This victory for both the major movie studios and video game developers was more than enough reason for the other major movie studios to give Street Fighter another chance to live again at the movies. The proven box office revenue of movies based on long-running, globally popular video games has caught the attention of all other major movie studios. These movies have proven to be legitimate and resounding hits with moviegoers.

In total, there have been two live-action movie adaptations of Street Fighter from major movie studios. With Sony Pictures, Legendary, and Capcom in charge of the new film set to release in 2026, there are naturally high hopes that it will meet or exceed expectations, as these three major entities are involved in its production. Again, as I have stated previously, it has been revealed that Capcom is co-developing and co-producing this upcoming movie project. With their involvement, the room for error is virtually non-existent. This is arguably Capcom’s greatest creation, product, and video game, in which they have invested and intend for it to succeed at the box office. Indeed, it is reassuring that they are part of the filmmaking process to prevent any mistakes during the pre-development phases.

The abundance of existing characters they can work with allows for a rich story to be developed. In short, they will not run out of source material if handled correctly because you have Ryu, Ken, Guile, Chun-Li, E. Honda, Blanka, Dhalsim, and Zangief, to start with. They are the eight original and most popular characters from the beginning of the Capcom video game franchise that has to be in the new Street Fighter movie. Of course, you also have the new fighters from its succeeding sequels, including the Street Fighter 3 series, the Alphas, the EXs, and the Street Fighter 4, 5 and 6 installments. There is a ton there, but you would hope they would focus first on the original 8 because they are long-time fan favorites. But who knows? We all have to wait and see because 2026 is still a long way off, and a lot can happen between now and then. For now, there is reason to celebrate because a new Street Fighter movie is going to happen.

Which reminds me, who is your favorite Street Fighter now? Mine was Guile from the original eight. Now, I am leaning towards Juri.