The Street Fighter Trailer Pays Tribute To The 1994 Movie With An Easter Egg

The "Street Fighter" trailer features no shortage of homages to the video game series. It also pays tribute to a movie that some people regret watching – but for others, it's just a Tuesday. Yes, there's already an Easter egg referencing the divisive 1994 "Street Fighter" film, which stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia.

In the trailer for 2026's "Street Fighter," there's a scene recapping the history of Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) and Ryu (Andrew Koji). Interspersed between the action is a quick glimpse of a photo featuring Ken and Ryu during happier times. However, there's more to this photo than meets the eye. The clothes that Ken and Ryu wear are almost identical to the ones worn by their counterparts from 1994's "Street Fighter." In addition to this, it appears like the photo was taken at a fighting tournament.

This all mirrors a sequence from the '90s film. In it, Byron Mann's Ryu and Damian Chapa's Ken meet with Sagat (Wes Studi) at an underground fighting tournament in Thailand. More importantly, they're indeed wearing the same outfits as their future selves from 2026's "Street Fighter."

While 1994's "Street Fighter" didn't receive a lot of love from critics and fans alike, it performed well at the box office, making over $99 million from a $35 million budget. There were plans for a sequel, which would have seen Jean-Claude Van Damme return as Guile and be joined by his "Universal Soldier" co-star Dolph Lundgren. However, "Street Fighter 2" never materialized.

Instead, a reboot in the form of "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" was released in 2009. By comparison, this film makes the 1994 one look like "Citizen Kane." It wasn't only that it was bad, but it also featured some of the worst choreographed martial arts sequences in movie history. Further, it flopped at the box office, making just over $12 million from a $50 million budget. This all killed the chance of another "Street Fighter" movie for quite some time.

While the live-action series "Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist" and "Street Fighter: Resurrection" would tide over fans, there wasn't serious movement on the film front until 2023, when Legendary Pictures picked up the rights. At first, "Bring Her Back" directors Danny and Michael Philippou were attached to direct the film, but they dropped out of the project. "Bad Trip" filmmaker Kitao Sakurai took over the reins, finally releasing the first "Street Fighter" movie in theaters after more than 15 years.