Bringing a beloved video game to the big screen comes with a unique challenge — honoring the elements that made it iconic while giving audiences a new way to connect with its characters.
For the cast and director of the 2026 Street Fighter film, that meant embracing everything from the franchise’s colorful world and memorable fighters to the smaller personality details that fans may not expect.The cast including Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, Cody Rhodes, Andrew Schulz, Eric André, David Dastmalchian, Rayna Vallandingham, and director Kitao Sakurai discussed the experience of bringing the legendary fighting game to life, sharing what makes its characters so enduring and why staying true to the spirit of the original game was essential to the filmmaking process.
Callina Liang as Chun Li in Street Fighter
For Liang, who takes on the role of Chun-Li, part of that process involved discovering details about the iconic fighter that she hadn’t previously known. While Chun-Li is widely recognized for her formidable fighting abilities, Liang was particularly amused to learn about the character’s preferences outside the arena.
“Her [Chun-Li] only dislike is M. Bison, which I find hilarious, and then her likes are sweet treats, fruits, and desserts — I didn’t know that about her. And I was like, you know what, I can get behind that, that’s a bit of me,” Liang shared.
The revelation offers a glimpse into the character work that goes beyond physicality and fight choreography. For an actor stepping into a role with an established history and a devoted fan base, discovering these smaller details can help create a more personal connection to the character. In Chun-Li’s case, her love of desserts provides a relatable contrast to her reputation as one of the franchise’s most recognizable fighters.
That attention to character also speaks to the broader challenge of adapting a video game whose appeal extends beyond its gameplay. Since its debut in the 1990s, Street Fighter has introduced generations of players to a roster of fighters, each with distinct identities, backgrounds, and fighting styles. Translating that world to film means recreating not only the action but also the personalities and visual details that players have come to recognize.
For Cody Rhodes, seeing those elements brought to life carries a particular sense of nostalgia. Reflecting on his experience with the game in the 1990s, Rhodes recalled how its character select screen introduced players to a world that felt expansive and exciting.
“In the 90s when this came out, it was the most worldview I would’ve had. That character select screen…Brazil and Blanka, Chun Li and China — for that to come to life, that’s one of the coolest things Kitao did with the movie, it’s game accurate,” Rhodes said.
His comments highlight the cultural impact of the game’s world building. The character select screen was more than a way to choose a fighter, it offered players a glimpse into different places and characters, helping establish the international scope of the Street Fighter universe. Bringing those elements into a live-action setting creates an opportunity for longtime fans to revisit a world they first encountered through a screen decades ago.
For Sakurai, maintaining that connection to the source material meant understanding what made the franchise resonate with players in the first place. Rather than focusing exclusively on recreating familiar imagery, the director emphasized the importance of preserving the game’s personality and the emotional connection audiences have developed with its characters.
“I always try to hold true to the spirit of the game and what made it great and what makes it so fun and why people are so attached to it and so nostalgic about it, and that has to do with the characters and the heart of it and the sense of fun,” Sakurai explained.
With its distinctive roster of fighters and decades of history behind it, Street Fighter carries a legacy that extends far beyond the arcade. Bringing that legacy to the big screen meant recognizing that the details matter.
