Street Fighter will not be a first-time partnership for Capcom and Legendary, who came together in 2015 with the very average Dead Rising: Watchtower, confined to the American VOD service Crackle. A sequel, Dead Rising: Endgame (a visionary title) appeared in 2016. Far from being confined to Z series like zombies, Legendary have also produced more ambitious feature films, such as Warcraft, Detective Pikachu or the great documentary Console Wars, which chronicles the rivalry between SEGA and Nintendo in the 1990s. Excluding video game adaptations, Legendary is preparing Dune 2 for November 3, 2023 and Godzilla vs Kong 2 for 2024.
“Our battle will be (at) Legendary!“
Let’s hope that Legendary’s know-how does honor to the crown jewel of Capcom, which celebrated its 35th birthday last year. A long and fruitful career in pixels, but whose potential on the big screen is struggling to materialize. It’s not for lack of trying. How to forget the nanardissime Street Fighter: The Movie, worn by a JCVD in top form, a historic Raul Julia in M. Bison and a lost Kylie Minogue in Cammy’s tights? A bit more confidential (and above all much more boring), Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li followed the investigation of the eponymous fighter in a destitution of means and the most total interest.
On the contrary, the animated film Street Fighter II, released in 1994, remains a little gem of 90’s tatane which still finds its place in good compilations. It was followed by two OVAs Street Fighter Alpha in 2000 and 2005. On the webseries side, we can recommend the official web-series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist And Street Fighter: Resurrection. Without pretending to compete with classic martial arts films, it’s shot, choreographed and referenced well enough to satisfy our little fan brain. The videos hosted on the Machinima channel have been deleted, but it is still possible to find the episodes on YouTube, reposted by good Samaritans.
With a little pot, the upcoming Street Fighter movie will hit theaters in time to compete with Mortal Kombat 2, which is slowly looming at New Line Cinema Studios. Failing to grab the kimonos on consoles, Ryu and Scorpion will always be able to compete at the box office.