We’ll be honest: Ever since it was announced, we could only ever half-convince ourselves that Kitao Sakurai’s Street Fighter movie was actually happening. Leave aside how poorly Capcom’s fighting game franchise has fared in theaters the lasttwo times it got a cinematic adaptation: The sheer idea of Bad Trip director Sakurai applying his Eric Andre Show pedigree to a franchise like Street Fighter was just hard for us to wrap our heads around, especially as the shockingly stacked cast list for the movie filled out.
More fool us, apparently, as Paramount rolled out the first teaser trailer for the 2026 film earlier tonight, and, wouldn’t you know it, it’s exactly as weird and goofy as all that lead-up might bring you to expect. Sure, there are some parts that look like a regular martial arts movie, with Andrew Koji’s Ryu and Callina Liang’s Chun-Li kicking the shit out of people. But then you get 50 Cent’s bizarre Balrog haircut. Or monster-man Jason Momoa. Or David Dastmalchian flapping his M. Bison cape. Or, god help us, the close-up of Cody Rhodes’ very tall Guile flat-top. (We haven’t even gotten to Andre himself, kicking the air from behind a suspiciously not-destroyed-yet desk.)
Say what you like about it, it’s certainly an energetic sales pitch, drawing major energy from Joey Valence and Brea’s “Punk Tactics”—a song that, hilariously, namechecks Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, but can’t spare a reference for this franchise. The whole thing suggests that Sakurai intends to throw more than 30 years of fighting game oddballs at the wall to see what smashes through it, potentially unlocking a car-obliterating bonus round in the process.
Street Fighter is currently aimed at an October 16, 2026 release date.
