Why Street Fighter (2026) Is Leaving Video Game Fans Furious

Now that video game movies are big business in Hollywood, it was inevitable that American film studios would take a third swing at making "Street Fighter" work as a live-action film. Thus, the world of Ryu (Andrew Koji), Ken Masters (Noah Centineo), and Chun-Li (Callina Liang) returns to the big screen under the direction of writer/director Kitao Sakurai (who penned the script with T.J. Fixman) with "Street Fighter." In this production, former best friends Ryu and Ken have gone their separate ways and haven't spoken in six years. When they're both recruited for a suspicious new installment of the World Warrior Tournament, though, they're going to have to confront their differences and face great evils.

"Street Fighter" certainly doesn't hold back on giving these goofy video game characters their colorful costumes, hairstyles, and weapons. However, fidelity to the source material in these respects doesn't mean 2026's "Street Fighter" is bound to leave every fan of these games euphoric. As the film's mixed reviews can attest, not everything works in "Street Fighter," and some of these flaws are bound to leave veteran devotees flustered and even perturbed. There are several reasons the new film will leave video game fans furious, some of which come from flaws that will also irritate folks who don't known Blanka from Juli.

Not every movie can please everyone, especially one based on a legendary video game saga. Still, these are the biggest "Street Fighter" miscalculations that'll inevitably rub video game loyalists the wrong way. 

One of the boss level details in "Wreck-It Ralph" is how it featured multiple "Street Fighter" cameos, including a lengthy appearance from Zangief. His presence reflected just how popular Zangief had become in larger pop culture beyond just the "Street Fighter" games. After making a noticeable appearance in 1994's "Street Fighter" film, it'd be understandable for "Street Fighter" devotees to get excited to see the character's live-action 2026 incarnation. This iteration of Zangief was portrayed by Olivier Richters, who keeps showing up in 2020s tentpoles (like "Black Widow" and "Borderlands") that need someone really tall.

Unfortunately, Zangief fans will undoubtedly leave "Street Fighter" fuming. The character only shows up in the title's first act and for one fight scene, where he dukes it out with Ken Masters after the character accidentally pulls a Tim Robinson and covers Zangief's steak in water. Zangief is last shown unconscious in a pile of similarly knocked out "Street Fighter" characters, all of whom later reappear ... except for Zangief. He vanishes for the rest of the feature, with no explanation given.

There was no way for a "Street Fighter" to fairly serve every single character or please all fans of the franchise. However, giving a popular figure like Zangief short shrift is an absolutely bizarre move bound to irritate "Street Fighter" aficionados. "Wreck-It Ralph," by contrast, understood the importance of giving Zangief his moment in the spotlight.

"Street Fighter" opens with a lengthy flashback to Ken and Ryu's pivotal World Warrior Tournament experience in 1987, as rendered in anime. Not only is it nifty to see a PG-13 American film embracing animation as a storytelling medium, but utilizing anime is a nice homage to one of the most beloved "Street Fighter" endeavors, the 1994 feature "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie." As a kick-off to a larger motion picture, not to mention vividly establishing how heightened the entire production will be, this is a cool visual choice. Unfortunately, "Street Fighter" keeps returning to these anime flashbacks throughout the entire runtime.

While the animation used in these scenes is well-realized, the material ends up being a far cry from the 50 best anime movies of all time. The chief problem with the flashbacks isn't the use of animation or visuals themselves, but rather how often the runtime grinds to a halt just to deliver exposition and backstory. Instead of focusing on the fight choreography fans came to see, an excess of superfluous character details flood the proceedings. At one point, "Street Fighter" even pauses just to deliver monochromatic live-action flashbacks to a Ryu and Chun-li exchange that happened just minutes ago off-screen.

Stopping and starting "Street Fighter" in this fashion proves disastrous for the motion picture. Even though it's cool to see the crisply drawn anime animation on the big screen, the excessive flashback sequences will no doubt leave "Street Fighter" fans miffed.

After being the titular lead of 2009's "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li," Chun-Li gets to return to the world of live-action movies with "Street Fighter." Here, she's introduced in a games-accurate form as an Interpol agent lusting for vengeance against the devious M. Bison (David Dastmalchian) for killing her family. She's even shown driving around in a news van, a reference to her occupation in the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie. Her revenge mission, though, gets the unique trait of her working for M. Bison as a seemingly loyal henchwoman while concealing her true plans. It's a plot adhering to the "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" motto.

While lots of time is spent setting up why Chun-Li wants to take down M. Bison, eventually, director Kitao Sakurai and company lose interest in the character. After her big confrontation with M. Bison, Chun-Li only exists to suddenly recover and scramble to Ryu so she can convince him to get up and save the day. In other words, all her standalone storylines grind to a halt so she can help a man fulfill his "destiny." She doesn't even get to deliver super memorable action beats in the climax, which just adds insult to injury.

As if it wasn't bad enough that "The Legend of Chun-Li" featured one of the worst choreographed martial arts sequences in movie history, now fan favorite character Chun-Li gets left behind in 2026's "Street Fighter." Her immense fanbase shan't be pleased with this development.

If there's anything "Street Fighter" fans come to a movie like "Street Fighter" for, it's to witness colorful characters duking it out in a martial arts tournament. Unfortunately, much like how the worst scenes in 2021's "Mortal Kombat" pushed back that film's titular event off to its sequel, "Street Fighter" is weirdly uninterested in actually putting its fictional characters through a fighting tournament. At least, unlike with "Mortal Kombat," the World Warrior Tournament does technically happen in "Street Fighter." However, audiences only witness a handful of fights during it. Most of the films focus is on Ryu in M. Bison's prison or Chun-Li's machinations far away from the stadium where the tournament is transpiring.

Ken does get to fight Balrog (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) and Dhalsim (Vidyut Jammwal), but that's about it for the tournament proper. Fight scenes do occur, but they're usually Chun-Li taking out four Interpol agents quickly or Ken and Ryu duking it out with interchangeable masked henchmen. Otherwise, figures "Street Fighter" fans would undoubtedly love to see engaging in skirmishes together (like Guile or Zangief) remain on the sidelines. Meanwhile, so many rounds in this tournament end up devolving into forfeits that Eric André's Don Sauvage ends up making self-referential comments about it. 

Instead of seeing beloved characters in hand-to-hand combat in a fighting tournament, "Street Fighter" instead spends an excruciating amount of time on painfully unfunny Andrew Schulz antics. That's not what anyone comes to a "Street Fighter" movie for.

The pantheons of most infuriating movie endings of all time and cheap movie endings that upset audiences just got a new member via "Street Fighter." As if this film's various flaws weren't enough to frustrate fans, the "Street Fighter" ending is bound to further bamboozle and confound these demographics. In this conclusion, M. Bison and his cronies have escaped with Akuma's body, thus ensuring that Bison will have access to all the power he wants. Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li, and Dan (Andrew Schulz) are despondent on the road until Guile and Dhalsim pull up in a car, with the former character revealing that they're "going Bison hunting" and inviting this weary quartet to join them.

Thus, they all drive off into the sunset, with their next mission ready to go ... and then the credits roll. After two hours, "Street Fighter" leaves audiences feeling like they just watched a trailer for a larger-scale sequel. There's no resolution to several "Street Fighter" storylines (especially Chun-Li's vengeance quest), while the crummy jokes populating this scene (including a dumb gag about Ryu's plans to walk to their destination quickly going awry) not really feeling appropriate given that M. Bison's just massively increased his power.

There should at least be urgency to this cliffhanger ending, not awkward stabs at hangout comedy and stale quips. For "Street Fighter" fans hoping this film would conclude on some delightfully melodramatic tomfoolery, they'll instead be treated to limp punchlines and an insulting cliffhanger.