Street Fighter Reboot Movie In The Works
A new Street Fighter movie is in development from Legendary.
It’s hard to think of too many fighting games that do it better than Street Fighter, and now Legendary has the film and TV rights to the revered video game franchise. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Legendary is working with video game company Capcom on all future film adaptations and TV projects. It sounds like a reboot or a brand-new TV series will be on the way from Legendary soon enough.
Street Fighter began as a fighting game in arcades in 1987. The game would perfect its mechanics with the still-beloved Street Fighter II, which hit arcades and was ported to the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. The sequel launched the franchise’s popularity into the stratosphere and has been going strong ever since.
However, it’s only been going strong in the video game world, as the Street Fighter film adaptations have been categorized as films that are worth watching for how bad they are. The most well-known adaptation is the 1994 film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ming-Na Wen, Kylie Minogue, and Raul Julia. The film was a critical and commercial bust, but that doesn’t mean Hollywood wouldn’t try again.
Another well-known adaptation of the franchise game in 2009 in the form of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which starred Kristin Kreuk in the lead role. The film faced a similar fate as the 1994 film. There have been various animated adaptations and TV shows of the source material, but none of the media outside the video games could be considered a robust success.
Perhaps Legendary will be able to turn that around with its upcoming Street Fighter projects. The series has introduced over 100 characters throughout its mainline games and spin-offs, and the lore is extensive at this point, so there is plenty of material to draw from. The recent boon of good video game movies means there may be hope for the films of the fighting franchise to continue this trend.
Two of the most successful video game adaptations in recent memory have been the Sonic films and HBO’s The Last of Us. These projects have proved that both lighthearted and dramatic video game adaptations can find an audience and get critical acclaim. With the right team and the right cast, it’s possible that Legendary could put a Street Fighter movie in the good category of video game adaptations.
Meanwhile, Universal (who made the terrible 1994 Street Fighter film) is trying its hand at the video game adaptation world again with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which comes out this week. It remains to be seen if this movie is a critical darling, but it certainly seems like it will at least bring in a ton of money. There are plenty of other video game adaptions on the horizon too.
If you can’t wait for the next Street Fighter film, you can at least look forward to the next video game in the franchise. The sixth mainline entry will be released on June 2. Stay tuned for more news on the upcoming Legendary projects and all other video game adaptions on the horizon.
