Bring back Cpt. Sawada
Legendary Entertainment, the production company behind recent adaptations such as Dune, Jurassic World, Godzilla vs Kong, and Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, has purchased the film and TV rights to Capcom’s iconic franchise Street Fighter. News of the sale was revealed in The Hollywood Reporter
The deal is expected to see the production company work in alignment with Capcom on any and all future projects, be they streaming series, anime, or live-action movies. The sale comes at a time when the bar for gaming adaptations has been raised, ever-so-slightly, from a critical standpoint, while the potential for financial success has basically never been higher. Paramount Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog movies have been an incredible success, while the forthcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie already looks set to be a definite box office winner for producer Marvelous.
Despite its huge universe of characters and its seemingly designed-for-movies action sequences, Street Fighter has had a very tumultuous time outside of the gaming medium. In animated fashion, fans have enjoyed middling-to-good animes, (as well as a truly abominable animated series), while live-action fans have endured the campy-but-still-not-very-good 1994 movie, the rubbish 2009 adventure Street Fighter: The Rise of Chun Li, and the interesting, but limited, 2014 web series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist.
Hopefully, this new partnership between Street Fighter and Legendary will see Ryu, Ken, Bison, Cammy and co. return to our screens in some form of fashion, delivering the globe-trotting, soul-seeking, face-smashing adventures that are the series’ trademark. It’s honestly not that hard. Just get the characterization right, and give us rock-solid fight sequences. Nobody is looking for Shakespeare, just treat the material with respect, be true to the characters, and make the action top-tier. Talk to Mortal Kombat… they’re getting there.
Get me on board, I’ll play, I dunno… Karin.
