It’s Sakurai… but not THAT Sakurai
Video game adaptations are back in style once again, and Capcom is trying to bring their premier fighting game to the big screen once again.
Although they hit a roadblock this Summer by losing the original Directors attached to the new Street Fighter film, it seems a new challenger has appeared.
Previously, the brother duo of Danny and Michael Philippou were slated to bring the world warriors back to live action in co-director roles.
The makers of Talk to Me dropped out of the project, however, reportedly due in part to scheduling conflicts with Legendary and Capcom ready to get the show on the road sooner rather than later.
Now, an industry insider in Daniel RPK is reporting they’ve found a new man to helm the Street Fighter film.
And that would be Kitao Sakurai.
As the headline suggests, this Sakurai, not the Super Smash Bros. one, has served as the Director for The Eric Andre Show for more than a decade, which is certainly something.
He does have film directing experience as well with Bad Trip a few years ago (also with Eric Andre).
Plus, Sakurai has been involved with another recent video game adaptation too listed as the Director for a handful of episodes for Twisted Metal.
All we’ve seen come out of this Street Fighter project thus far is a simple promotional poster, so there’s not much else known about the details.
There aren’t any actors attached to star in the movie as of yet though they do have a release date set.
Legendary is planning to have Street Fighter hit theaters in March 2026, which means they’ll probably have to start filming soon to reach that target.
The original 1994 Street Fighter movie still brings in a good chunk of money every year for Capcom after 30 years, so it’s not too surprising they’d want to take another shot at having Ryu and Chun-Li on the big screen again.
We do have to note, however, this report of Sakurai joining the film doesn’t appear to be officially confirmed yet, so please take all that with a healthy grain of salt.
There’s also another fighting game adaptation set to release a year from now with Mortal Kombat 2.
Image via The Eric Andre Show.