'Street Fighter' Starts Its Roster Selections, Including Noah Centineo As Ken, Jason Momoa As Blanka
All sorts of fists are ready to fly as the undated film gains traction, including Walton Goggins, Andrew Koji, Orville Peck, and Roman Reigns
In March, shortly before CinemaCon, Sony removed its Street Fighter movie from its schedule, because with less than a year until the March 20, 2026 date it was removed from it had just gotten a new director in Kitao Sakurai, but it also had no cast. For a film with an expected character roster of at least 12. The latest draft has been written by latest draft was written by Dalan Musson, who co-wrote Captain America: Brave New World with Malcolm Spellman. Luckily, within a few weeks, that started to change. And fast.
It started with reports in mid-April that Andrew Koji and Noah Centineo were in talks to play Ryu and Ken, which sitting here two months later has been unchanged. Ryu is a martial artist who dedicated his life to mastering the art of Ansatsuken through any fight he can by traveling the world looking for worthy opponents. Ken Masters is Ryu’s best friend and brotherly rival, having trained with Ryu since they were kids. He is a fiery and charismatic fighter whose lifestyle is now a bit distant from his fighter upbringing, but has kept an aggressive and fast-paced style which reflects his confident and ambitious personality. Koji broke out as Ah Sahm in Warrior and played Storm Shadow in the GI Joe film Snake Eyes, later appearing in Bullet Train, while Centineo is best known for his role in Netflix’s To All The Boys franchise and the series The Recruit. He was once set up to play He-Man, but has also played Atom Smasher in Black Adam, and was most recently seen in Alex Garland’s Warfare.
'Street Fighter', 'Saw XI' Removed From Release Schedule
For you, the day Saw XI and Street Fighter were removed from the schedule was an important day of your life, but for Lionsgate and Sony, it was Monday. And CinemaCon was coming up, so both studios made major shifts in preparation.
In May, it was reported that Game of Thrones and Stargate Atlantis alum Jason Momoa, fresh off A Minecraft Movie, and WWE wrestler Roman Reigns had also been cast, but it took piecemeal of several reporters to get that they’d be playing Blanka and Akuma respectively. Blanka is feral fighter once known as Jimmy, who was mutated by a plane crash and electric eels in the Brazilian jungle. Now bearing green skin, wild orange hair, and electric powers, he fights with animalistic agility and heart, primal strength and unexpected tenderness. Akuma, also known as Gouki, is a ruthless martial artist driven by a thirst for strength who embraced the dark power and deadly techniques of Satsui no Hado. He traded compassion for glowing eyes and demonic presence, making him relentless force who seeks to destroy worthy opponents. Momoa, who had been Aquaman in the DCEU and Duncan Idaho in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One and is set to return for Dune: Messiah. Also upcoming he has Apple’s miniseries Chief of War, premiering August 1, Legendary’s live action/animated road trip romp Animal Friends in May before appearing as Lobo in Supergirl of the new DC Universe, and starring alongside Dave Bautista in The Wrecking Crew. Reigns, real name Leati Joseph Anoa’i has one of the longest world title reigns in the history of the WWE, and film credits in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and The Wrong Missy.
Fast forward another couple of weeks and we have another wave: insiders reporting that Orville Peck was cast as Vega, Ironheart star Eric André as the ring announcer, and Walton Goggins as M. Bison. Peck is a country singer from South Africa known for wearing a mask as to not show his face publicly. His debut album Pony released in 2019 and was quickly followed up by the EP Show Pony the following year. His next two albums were Bronco in 2022, and Stampede last year. Goggins is coming off of a successful stint on the third season of HBO’s The White Lotus, but four seasons of The Righteous Gemstones, and an Emmy-nomination for his role as Cooper Howard aka The Ghoul on Prime Video’s Fallout. He’s a GI Joe movie alum himself as Warden Nigel James in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, with roles in Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, Lincoln, Ant-Man and the Wasp and most recently Queen of the Ring. Vega is a fittingly masked, however narcissistic Spanish assassin who values beauty while blending elegant yet cruel ninjutsu with bullfighting. He uses claws too, to strike from walls and shadows as Shadaloo’s most flamboyant enforcer. M. Bison is the ruthless dictator and leader of Shadoo obsessed with domination, bearing mind manipulation and psychic powers through the use of Psycho Power, seeking immortality through clones and dark ambition. He organizes the entire tournament. Raul Julia’s performance in the 1994 film is beloved, praised and quoted to this day. However, it seems the bigger trades chose to solely pick up Peck’s casting. Director Sakurai was writer, director and executive producer of The Eric Andre Show, and he and Andre co-write his directing effort the 2021 Netflix comedy Bad Trip, so they’ve got their rapport, of course he was going to get a role in his next movie
Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes Celebrate 'Masters Of The Universe' Wrap
There’s an exodus from Eternia, yet it is steeped in victory. Masters of the Universe, the second film adaptation of the ‘80s franchise that has seen six animated series including spinoffs (seven counting that spinoff’s reboot detached from its original franchise due to rights issues), has wrapped production. The stars of the film, namely Nicholas Galit…
Then earlier this week, we finally got our Chun-Li, the martial artist and Interpol officer, who will be played by Callina Liang. She stars with Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan in Presence, and has also been seen in the thriller Bad Genius, as well as Apple TV+’s Foundation. Not only that, but on the same day, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson was reported and later confirmed to be playing Balrog. Balrog is a character that debuted in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, emerging from the Las Vegas slums he became a ruthless prizefighter, rising through the ranks to fame with “sheer brutality and determination”. He’s also greedy and sadistic, ultimately cheating and utilizing dirty tactics, resulting in grievously injuring and killing opponents and a ban from professional boxing. This made him vulnerable for recruitment by M. Bison to become his enforcer at Shadaloo. Jackson’s been in the rap game since 1996, releasing his debut studio album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ in 2003. He then made his acting debut in the semi-autobiographical film of the same name. His other roles include Home of the Brave, Righteous Kill, the ABC series For Life, the Escape Plan film franchise with Sylvester Stallone, and Power, the Starz franchise he executive produces. As Kanan Stark he recurred in the first two seasons, was main for the rest, and then recurred on season 2 of Book II: Ghost. Not only did Jackson tweet the coverage, but Sakurai put a smile in his Instagram Stories to Jackson’s equivalent post on that platform.
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. It even won fighting game of the year at that year’s Game Awards. The latter three entries in the series were released after hiatuses of 11, 8, and 7 years respectively.
‘Mortal Kombat 2' First Look Released, First Footage Shown At CinemaCon
The new Mortal Kombat film franchise might be headed to Hollywood in its sequel releasing in October, but first, it had to go through the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for CinemaCon, with a feature along the way.
