New ‘Street Fighter’ Movie You Didn’t Know Was Happening Lost Its Release Date

Video game movies are no longer the jokes they used to be; for the most part. At the very least, studios have (maybe) become less gun-shy about making them. There’s a Minecraft movie on the horizon directed by the creator of Napolean Dynamite and starring Jason Momoa and Jack Black. A movie based on the horror series Until Dawn will hit theaters a few weeks later. There’s a sequel to the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie set to hit theaters this October. Video game movies are out there in full force and that makes sense. In an entertainment field hungry for IP, it stands to reason that they would start mining video games again, even if that hasn’t worked so well in the past.

The list of silly and/or ill-advised video game adaptations is long and depressing. Hell, even with many properties being taken more “seriously” there are still the occasional duds (I actually didn’t care much for the 2021 Mortal Kombat flick, but I also recall watching it at ten AM on a Saturday in between the feedings and naps of my then-months-old twin children). But going back further reveals films that are a hot mess of “what the hell were people thinking?” The Mario Brothers movie starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as the eponymous siblings is still a head-scratcher. A Mortal Kombat film hit theaters in 1995 and was disliked by critics but made enough money for director Paul Anderson to keep making video game films for years to come (hello, Resident Evil). But a Street Fighter adaptation potentially feels the most bananas.

Written and directed by Die Hard’s own Stephen de Souza, Street Fighter hit theaters in 1994 and was a confounding mix of genres. There are elements of it that feel intentionally tongue-in-cheek, but they never land. The film also doesn’t really follow any of the story elements from the video games it adapts. Instead, it’s an action-adventure/war film that feels like a throwback to the 1980s (but not in a good way). But, while they take liberties in some areas, they keep the American Colonel character of Guile but cast Belgium native Jean-Claude Van Damme to play him (Raúl Juliá owns as Bison though). The movie is wild and may hold up better if the comedy was funnier, but its legacy (good and bad) is undeniable.

There were attempts at a sequel but nothing materialized. An unrelated Street Fighter movie released in 2010 was less well-received than this one (but, if you’ve seen any of the Chris Kline clips from that flick, you know why). I honestly assumed the legacy of films for this franchise was so toxic that another would never get off the ground. So, to put it mildly, I was shocked to learn that a Street Fighter movie was announced in 2023 with Alan Ritchson in talks for Guile (good casting)! I was even more caught off guard to learn the film had been given a release date of March 26th, 2026. Finding this all out while also learning the film had been removed from the schedule indefinitely made a lot more sense.

That was the case with an announcement from Lionsgate today. The Hollywood Reporter reported the news and packed it with some interesting details. They noted how they reported director Kitao Sakurai to be taking over the project just last month. An even wilder wrinkle is that he took over duties from Talk To Me directors Danny and Michael Philippou. I don’t know what I would want from a Street Fighter movie, but I would have instantly been on board if the Philippous behind it. Instead, it looks like a movie I didn’t even know was happening will never see the light of day. Despite their recent uptick in success, the history of video game movies remains cursed.