The Street Fighter movie is taking a little longer than we initially expected.
We reported last February that Legendary Pictures just picked up a new director in Kitao Sakurai. Given that Sony put forward a release date of March 20, 2026, we expected that that date would be changed. But we didn’t quite expect this.
As reported by Deadline, Sony Pictures has removed the Street Fighter movie from its 2026 release slate. Just to remind everyone, while Sony signed a distribution deal for this movie, it’s actually Legendary Pictures who is the production company working on the project.
Legendary Pictures’ distribution deal with Sony Pictures ended last December 31. It’s certainly curious that Sony didn’t choose to remove the game from its lineup then and there. It may simply be the case that they didn’t bother to make any updates until they knew what was going to happen to the project.
There was definitely a possibility that the movie would get cancelled, since the original directors hired by Legendary Pictures and Capcom, the team of brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, bowed out.
In any case, none of this should really come as a surprise. We have yet to learn that Legendary has cast the roles for the film, and they have kept everything under wraps when it comes to the script as well.
If this movie gets released, it will be third attempt at a live action adaptation of Street Fighter. While fans see video game movies as a way to get a real life rendition of their favorite games, companies like Capcom and Nintendo see other aspects of it as well.
Nintendo openly stated that they made the Super Mario Bros. Movie for the purpose of making Mario well known again to the public, especially children, who don’t buy Nintendo consoles. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that the movies can be profitable of themselves, as is the case with this movie and the very successful Sonic The Hedgehog movie trilogy.
As Capcom has said before, the campy 1994 Street Fighter movie, as embarrassing as it was, has proven to be one of Capcom’s most reliable money makers. So Capcom definitely wants this new movie to be a ‘faithful’ rendition of the video game franchise, as promised by Legendary, but they are definitely also thinking about the money.
Of course, it’s no longer 1994, and Mario’s and Sonic’s success in the silver screens have soft launched a new wave of video game movies. If Capcom plays their cards right this time, this Street Fighter movie could outdo 1994 in being a crossover success.
