Paramount puts a quarter on the machine for the Street Fighter movie

Kitao Sakurai's Street Fighter adaptation has been picking up steam for a while now, but Paramount has just stepped up to distribute.

By William Hughes | September 4, 2025 | 6:06pm

Film News Street Fighter

Paramount puts a quarter on the machine for the Street Fighter movie

Paramount has been making some aggressive moves this week, as it works to prove that the company’s previous behavior—i.e., supplicating itself before the White House so it could beg and whine a merger approval out of the FCC—shouldn’t be perceived as the weakness it certainly looked like. Now, the recently cash-rich Skydance acquisition has announced that it’s not just picking up the Street Fighter film adaptation that’s been in the works for a few years at this point, but also the studio producing it.

Specifically, THR reports that Paramount has just signed a three-year content release deal with Legendary, the studio well-known for partnering with much bigger companies to get its movies out the door. (Notably including a long-time association with Warner Bros., with which it made Dune, the modern Godzilla movies, and A Minecraft Movie; sequels to those properties will continue to be distributed by WB.) But Paramount gets shared custody of Street Fighter, based on the long-running Capcom “This is a very serious martial arts tournament where some of the fighters can also throw fireballs” fighting game franchise. That includes a new synopsis for the film, which suggests it’ll be some sort of ’90s period piece:

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Set in 1993, estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s GAME OVER!”

So far, news around Street Fighter has mostly centered on casting. In addition to Koji, Centineo, and Liang, the film is also set to star Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Andrew Schulz, Eric André, Vidyut Jammwal, Jason Momoa, and 50 Cent. (As *deep breath* Akuma, Guile, Dan, announcer Don Sauvage, Dhalsim, Blanka, and Balrog, respectively.) Oh, and Murderbot co-star David Dastmalchian, who we’re genuinely interested to see find some nuance in the game series’ sneering villain, M. Bison. (There aren’t a lot of modern actors we’d dare to go up against Raul Julia, who gave a beautifully hammy performance—his final one—in the 1995 Street Fighter movie. But Dastmalchian has a live-wire energy we’d like to see tackle this kind of cheese.) The film, slated for an October 2026 release, is being directed by Kitao Sakurai, best known for his long stint as the director for The Eric André Show, as well asAndré’s hidden camera movie Bad Trip.