‘Street Fighter’: ‘Twisted Metal’ Director to Helm New Movie!!

Here comes a new challenger to direct Legendary‘s upcoming Street Fighter movie. After Talk to Me duo Danny and Michael Philippou left the project last year due to scheduling conflicts, Kitao Sakurai has been tapped to take their place in adapting the iconic Capcom fighting game franchise. The transition between creatives at the helm still hasn’t affected the release date yet though, as the live-action film is still expected to hit theaters on March 20, 2026. Capcom has remained closely involved throughout the entire process to ensure this latest attempt at bringing Ryu, Ken, and the rest to the big screen goes off without a hitch despite the turnover.

The new Street Fighter movie first entered development in 2023 after Legendary acquired the rights to the franchise, with Capcom helping to co-develop. Little is known about the exact plot of the film, but it will have a lot of material to pull from as the series has become synonymous with the fighting game genre itself through its many installments. Though the first title was released in 1987, Street Fighter didn’t hit its stride until 1991 when its sequel set the bar for all 2D one-on-one fighting games to come with its diverse roster of characters from around the world and tense martial arts action, complete with a story based around an international tournament run by the evil organization Shadaloo and its leader, M. Bison. Since then, the series has only continued to expand with over 55 million units sold to date. Its latest installment, Street Fighter VI, also won Best Fighting Game at the 2023 Game Awards and is still getting plenty of support from Capcom.

Street Fighter II‘s revolutionary release also became the basis for the film and television adaptations to come. The most notable of these, of course, was the 1994 bomb written and directed by Steven E. de Souza and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel Guile alongside a delightfully over-the-top Raul Julia as M. Bison. Sakurai will be tasked with bringing the beloved characters to life in a way that stands the test of time as more than just a campy classic with some more hands-on help from Capcom. So far, all we have to go on is promo artwork from Licensing Expo that hints at a closer connection to the games, but the cast and crew around the director remain unknown.

What Else Is Kitao Sakurai Known For?

Sakurai, to this point, is better known for his work on the small screen than in theaters. He’s most recognizable as the Emmy-nominated director of The Eric Andre Show and has since reunited with the titular comedian for the 2021 feature, Bad Trip. Though Street Fighter will be his biggest project to date, it’ll also be somewhat familiar ground for Sakurai given his past work helming four episodes from the first season of Peacock‘s hit video game adaptation, Twisted Metal. Other projects that have let him show his directorial chops include his 2010 feature debut Aardvark and the FXX comedy darling Dave. His work will also be seen in the upcoming Daniel Dae Kim Amazon project Butterfly, and he’s locked up as an executive producer for the second season of Netflix‘s Beef.