'Street Fighter' Movie Gets 2026 Release Date After Losing Directors
Scheduling conflicts and other factors have led Danny and Michael Philippou to depart
You win! You lose! But for me it was Thursday. Legendary’s adaptation of the Street Fighter video game franchise from Capcom has lost its directors Danny and Michael Philippou. It has also had its release date announced by distributor Sony Pictures: March 20, 2026.
The Philippou brothers have been preparing to shoot their film Bring Her Back, starring Sally Hawkins and Billy Barratt, for A24 later this month in Australia. It seems this targeted release date was going to need all this time to develop and be made, unable to start any sooner.
Quite infamously, this is the third attempt at movie success for the franchise. The 1994 film directed by Steven E. de Souza helped further tank the reputation of video game movies less than two years after the release of Super Mario Bros. It starred Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile, Raúl Juliá as M. Bison, and Ming-Na Wen as Chun-Li saw Guile gather a group of fighters to help free a collection of kidnapped UN delegates. 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li didn’t fare much better. Starring Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk as Chun-Li, the Arrowverse’s Neal McDonough as M. Bison, Chris Klein as Charlie Nash, and Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog was probably more snubbed by fans, overshadowed as 20th Century Fox also released the despised Dragonball Evolution the same year. But now as video game adaptations like Detective Pikachu, the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and especially billion-dollar maker The Super Mario Bros. Movie are made to warmer critical reception as well, everybody’s getting in on it. A Borderlands movie is just coming up in August. The follow-up to The Super Mario Bros. Movie is set to open two weeks after Street Fighter, on April 3.
As for films serving as direct competition opening against Street Fighter, that is currently Amazon MGM Studios’ space drama Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and written by Drew Goddard.
Launched in 1987, Street Fighter has sold more than 49 million units worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time, with well-spread sequels over the 36 years, as well as special editions and remakes. 1991’s second installment was the first to offer choices of playable characters and fighting techniques. The most recent game in the franchise, Street Fighter 6 was released on June 2, 2023, on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. The latter three entries in the series were released after hiatuses of 11, 8, and 7 years respectively.
