Ed’s teaser trailer for Street Fighter 6 was recently revealed, meaning that Capcom is nearly ready to release him as the game’s next DLC combatant. This is a good thing as fans were seriously beginning to wonder if Capcom had completely forgotten about Ed due to them teasing Akuma in celebration of the new year.
Even for those that aren’t necessarily excited for Ed joining as a fighter, there’s still something interesting that Ed can potentially add to the Street Fighter lore. Just like with Rashid and A.K.I., the addition of Ed means new World Tour story content, which is clearly part of what was teased with the Ed trailer.
Following the end of Shadaloo during Street Fighter 5’s main story mode, Ed founded Neo Shadaloo. Just a few months after he and Balrog parted ways, Ed could be seen with three other members of Neo Shadaloo.
We would later learn that the female member of the group went by the name of Falke as she would later be released as a DLC fighter in Season 3 of Street Fighter 5. Whereas Ed had the ability to eject Psycho Power from his hands, Falke had the ability to inject Psycho Power into objects.
The other two combatants seen in the final image of Ed’s story were never directly referenced again within Street Fighter 5’s story. Clearly, Ed would meet up with these other two members sometime after Falke, but other character stories never got to that point.
However, this doesn’t mean that we don’t know anything at all about the other two members of Neo Shadaloo. Back in 2021, Takayuki Nakayama, the then Street Fighter 5 Director who is also the Street Fighter 6 Director, revealed small bits of information about the other two.
“Well, let me give you some special information then… The gorilla’s name is Baba Muarim (or Mwalimu), and he is extremely smart (in particular areas),” said Nakayama. It’s said that Baba inherited M. Bison’s wisdom and high intelligence.
“Baba Mwalimu” is said to have been pulled from Swahili which translates to “father teacher.” We know absolutely nothing about Baba’s personality right now, but it sounds like he may be the brains of Neo Shadaloo’s entire operation.
We know the least about the tall man with triangular, curly hair. He apparently inherited M. Bison’s ability to teleport. Other fighters like Dhalsim and Seth have been known to have teleports, but we’ve never seen a combatant in Street Fighter whose entire focus is on teleportation.
Nakayama also teased that the tall man’s name starts with a “G,” though he didn’t leave any other hints beyond that. Although there is already a character named “G” in Street Fighter 5, there doesn’t appear to be any connection between these two.
In Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode, characters have the tendency to tell you about their backstories as you raise your bond level with them. More than likely, Ed may be persuaded to talk about Neo Shadaloo and his entourage as seen in his character story ending for Street Fighter 5.
With that in mind, we may finally learn more about Baba Mwalimu and the tall man who’s name starts with “G” once Ed is released as the next DLC fighter.