Legendary Is Set To Work With Capcom On Street Fighter Movies And TV Shows
Legendary Entertainment is primed to launch a new interconnected media franchise. As shared by The Hollywood Reporter, the studio behind "Pacific Rim" and "Batman Begins" purchased the film and TV rights to "Street Fighter," Capcom's classic video game series. The term "classic" is almost a misnomer because it implies that "Street Fighter" belongs to a bygone era of gaming but, while the series began in 1987 as a multiplayer arcade cabinet brawler, "Street Fighter 6" will release this June on most modern consoles.
THR's report also states that Legendary will work in tandem with Capcom to create its adaptations to guarantee quality. This particular aspect of the announcement seems to be grounded in the recent success of video game adaptations such as HBO Max's "The Last of Us," which notably involved Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog — the original creator and the original gaming studio, respectively — to great success. Legendary's current film distribution deal is with Sony (through whom the studio will release "Dune: Part Two" later this year).
A partnership with baggage
"Street Fighter" won't be Legendary's first video game adaptation, neither will Legendary create the first cinematic adaptation of "Street Fighter." Legendary's backlog includes "Warcraft," the unsuccessful 2016 film adaptation of Blizzard's MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) "World of Warcraft," and "Detective Pikachu," the much more well-received 2019 film adaptation of Nintendo's 3DS title of the same name. Conversely, Universal released "Street Fighter: The Movie" in 1994 to nearly universal displeasure. While it failed to engage audiences, at least the production made it to the screen. In 2018, Deadline reported that eOne had purchased the rights to create a "Street Fighter" TV series that obviously never came to fruition.
Hopefully, the relationship between Legendary and Capcom will lead to a higher caliber of adaptation than "Street Fighter" has seen thus far. While the series isn't inherently story-driven, the bounty of playable characters in the "Street Fighter" roster is bundled with backstories that span the globe. From these, something great can be built. If it doesn't work out, well, Capcom still has the chance for a "Mega Man" movie with Netflix to possibly look forward to.