A new Street Fighter trailer trades the campy action-comedy tone of the film’s first look for a sharper focus on rivalry and stakes. The clip centers on Ryu (Andrew Koji) and his tangled history with Ken (Noah Centineo). It opens on an all-out brawl between the two before pulling back to reveal the World Warrior Tournament driving the plot.
Chun-Li (Callina Liang) is the one who pushes Ryu to enter the tournament, framing it as the only way to take down M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), the film’s central villain. The trailer also gives E. Honda (Hirooki Goto) a standout moment, running through nearly his entire video game moveset in about ten seconds. It’s a callback to the fireball attack Ryu threw at the close of the first trailer. It’s also one of several moments in the new footage built around a specific move from the games rather than generic fight choreography.
The Street Fighter movie’s ties to the games
The film adapts Capcom’s fighting game franchise, which launched in 1987 and grew into one of the best-selling video game series ever made. The World Warrior Tournament at the center of the plot borrows its name from Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. That 1991 sequel turned the series into an arcade phenomenon. The movie also follows the 1994 Street Fighter film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, a critical and commercial misfire that has loomed over every adaptation attempt since. The franchise has spawned multiple anime films and an animated television series over the decades, in addition to the games themselves.
What the new Street Fighter trailer reveals about the plot
According to the official synopsis, the World Warrior Tournament hides a conspiracy. It forces Ryu and Ken to fight each other and confront the demons of their pasts. Kitao Sakurai directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with T. J. Fixman, based on a story by Gary Dauberman and Dalan Musson. Dauberman is best known for horror scripts including It and Annabelle, while Sakurai previously directed the comedy film Bad Trip and episodes of Eric Andre’s television work.
Street Fighter’s supporting cast
Beyond Koji, Centineo, Liang, Dastmalchian and Goto, the film brings in a wide mix of wrestlers, musicians and comedians to round out its roster of fighters:
- Cody Rhodes as Guile
- Roman Reigns as Akuma
- Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog
- Jason Momoa as Blanka
- Orville Peck as Vega
- Andrew Schulz as Dan
- Mel Jarnson as Cammy
Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, who were originally attached to direct the film before Sakurai came aboard, appear in a brief cameo of their own.
Street Fighter opens in theaters on October 16.