STREET FIGHTER Casts THE SUICIDE SQUAD Star David Dastmalchian As Lead Villain M. Bison

In what has to be the live-action Street Fighter movie’s most surprising addition yet, The Suicide Squad star David Dastmalchian has joined the cast as its lead villain, the formidable M. Bison!

News

By JoshWilding - Jul 01, 2025 05:07 PM EST

Filed Under: Video Games

Deadline (via GameFragger.com) has revealed that David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad) has joined the cast of Legendary Entertainment's live-action Street Fighter movie as its lead villain, M. Bison.

The actor has become a mainstay across film and television thanks to memorable supporting turns, but this will mark his biggest role to date. Dastmalchian was most recently seen in The Life of Chuck and received widespread praise for his work in Late Night with the Devil.

Comic book fans will know him best for playing Kurt in the Ant-Man franchise and as Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad. He's also voiced multiple DC characters, including Calendar Man and The Penguin, and played Abra Kadabra in The Flash.

Next up for Dastmalchian is Dexter: Resurrection and season 2 of Netflix's hit series One Piece, where he'll play the evil Mr. 3.

Back to M. Bison, he's the primary antagonist in the Street Fighter video game series. The tyrannical leader of the criminal organisation Shadaloo, seeking world domination, Bison wields Psycho Power, a dark energy that enhances his strength and allows mind control.

It was recently confirmed that WWE Superstar Roman Reigns will play the villainous Akuma in Legendary Entertainment's upcoming Street Fighter movie.

Rounding out the cast are Andrew Koji as Ryu, Noah Centineo as Ken, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, 50 Cent as Balrog, Jason Momoa as Blanka, and Orville Peck as Vega. Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip) is directing from a screenplay by Dalan Musson (Captain America: Brave New World).

Since Street Fighter's launch in 1987, the series has sold over 49 million units worldwide, becoming one of the most well-known and highest-grossing video game franchises of all time.

Along with films based on original IP, Legendary has a successful track record for adaptations, including leading video game franchises. Recent titles include the six Academy Award-winning Dune, not to mention multiple entries in its cinematic Monsterverse, and movies like Detective Pikachu and Enola Holmes.

Hollywood has attempted to adapt Street Fighter in the past, including a 1994 movie that bombed. It starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na Wen, and the late Raul Julia among others, while a 2009 effort - Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li - featuring Smallville alum Kristin Kreuk also flopped.

When we spoke to Dastmalchian for Batman: The Long Halloween, we asked which of his many comic book roles stands out as his favourite.

"[Laughs] Oh, it's impossible to pick. If you look in my office or if you'd have looked in my room many years ago, and now I'm a 'grown-up' quote, unquote, it's an office, but I've now sorted the thousands of comic books I've collected," the actor started. "I can go from Justice League to Detective Comics over to my love of Marvel and Dark Horse and Image and Boom and you name it!"

"To me, there's so much magnificent work and so many characters brilliant people have imagined over time, for me, it's hard to quantify exactly which character I like most. Each of them is unique and they're like your children or something when you get to bring them to life," Dastmalchian continued. "I'll say too, what a challenge thinking about Tim Sheridan in adapting one of the greatest comic book achievements of all time. You think about what Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did and it's inspired so many comics. It's gone on to be canon and the dialogue and scripting is done so well. It's so beautiful and a really gorgeous script, so it was a lot of fun to sink my teeth into."

Street Fighter doesn't have a confirmed release date. Stay tuned for updates as we have them.

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68 Comments

1 2

ThorArms - 7/1/2025, 5:11 PM

This cast is awful lol

Amaru - 7/1/2025, 5:11 PM

Interesting pick, never would have thought of casting him.

Steel86 - 7/1/2025, 5:14 PM

If he puts on some size then a W.

TheVisionary25 - 7/1/2025, 5:20 PM

@Steel86 - I’m assuming he won’t and will be akin to Raul Julia’s size in the 90’s film.

DarthOmega - 7/1/2025, 5:18 PM

Bison is a tall muscular dude from Thailand. So of course Raul Julia and David Dastmalchian are the best Hollywood could find.

DarthAlgar - 7/1/2025, 5:24 PM

@DarthOmega - I'll give Raul a pass.

Especially since video game movies back then were still in the experimental phase. Also Street Fighter II Bison was pretty slim and didn't really bulk up until Street Fighter Alpha.

There's no excuse this time.

KaptainKhaos - 7/1/2025, 5:27 PM

@DarthOmega - Raul Julia was fighting Stomach Cancer while filming that role and he did it to perfection

pucrepeap - 7/1/2025, 5:28 PM

@DarthOmega - Raul was so good in that movie.

CorndogBurglar - 7/1/2025, 7:06 PM

@DarthOmega - Its never actually been stated where Bison is from. His stage in SF2 is in Thailand, but that could easily just be the location of the championship match of the tournament. To this day its never been confirmed what his nationality is or where he's from.

NonPlayerC - 7/1/2025, 7:56 PM

@CorndogBurglar - yeah sometimes his shadowloo base is in Thailand sometimes Brazil depending on the game. his nationality is unknown but as his uniform is based off old Chinese and Japanese styles

dragon316 - 7/1/2025, 8:01 PM

@DarthOmega - what’s excuse don cheadle playing Jim Rohdes in comics he’s 263 don cheadle is 100 pounds less and 1 foot short ?si=Xb3M25Tkh_vk9FUX

dragon316 - 7/1/2025, 8:04 PM

@DarthAlgar - what’s excuse for don cheadle he’s 1 foot shorter and 100 pounds less to comic Jim Rohdes height and weight ?si=Xb3M25Tkh_vk9FUX

And no one complains but always cry comic accurate with height , weight , race , ethnicity johanthan majors before court he post he’s playing kang people excited about it no one mention how kang should be white not black in comics kang is always white

FlixMentallo21 - 7/1/2025, 11:46 PM

@DarthOmega - Echoing CorndogBurglar, Bison's nationality is never given, but it should be noted that in the original Japanese releases, a few names were swapped around:

-The red-clad military guy with the cape was Vega (probably a riff on stereotypical South American dictators).
-The masked claw-wielder was Balrog.
-And the black boxer was going to be M. Bison--with M being short for Mike, making him a takeoff of Mike Tyson.

BruceWayng - 7/1/2025, 5:19 PM

Absolutely horrible casting. I thought Walter Goggins was bad but now I wish we got him.

DarthAlgar - 7/1/2025, 5:20 PM

mountainman - 7/1/2025, 5:20 PM

Don’t forget Andrew Schultz as Dan.

The casting for this is so random. It’s tough to have much hope in it as of right now.

DarthOmega - 7/1/2025, 5:21 PM

@mountainman - And 50 cent as Balrog

mountainman - 7/1/2025, 5:25 PM

@DarthOmega - Yeah I know Balrog isn’t a very meaty role, but geez that one is odd. You would think there’d be a muscular black man who can actually act that could have been better.

This property seems like an more difficult nut to crack than Mortal Kombat even.

DarthAlgar - 7/1/2025, 5:26 PM

@DarthOmega - I actually think that's the best casting so far aside from Jason Mamoa.

LenSpiderman - 7/1/2025, 5:37 PM

@mountainman - regardless of how much story the games squeeze into the cracks and crevices, the thing we all love about the games is two people beating each other up. SF and MK among most other fighting games pin that to some kind of tournament or specific one on one organized fight format situation. That sucks all the drama and tension out of a movie when we know that at some point people will be fighting simply because they “have to”. Of course that’s how most boxing movies work, right? But most boxing movies are built around a single consequential fight and feature maybe a few more in smaller portions. MK and SF movies tend to try to maximize matchups by including out of tournament fighting, then try to pin it back to the game with in tournament fighting. Those things tend to hamper each other by making the former seem unnecessary and the latter seem boring by comparison. Not to say it’s impossible but it makes it very difficult to create a single movie story that makes much sense and satisfies both story needs and game fans. This would probably work better as a show that could feature maybe 2-3 fights per episode with one being the big consequential fight and the rest be world building and story drama. That or skip the tournament concept altogether for the first few movies as we introduce characters with good drama and world building and bring it all together as they are taken captive by bison and forced to fight for some reason in the “avengers assemble” movie of the franchise.

Nate212 - 7/1/2025, 5:50 PM

@mountainman - That's how I feel. I was really excited for this film at one point, but the cast leaves a lot to be desired. The only person who I feel has been cast perfectly is Andrew Koji as Ryu. Everyone else leaves me scratching my head.

The last Mortal Kombat film wasn't without its faults, but I really hope people stop ragging on it now because at least that film nailed the casting.

Nate212 - 7/1/2025, 5:56 PM

@LenSpiderman - I agree. I think Street Fighter would work best as a TV show. They could easily do a live action version of the Animated Movie and have Ryu be the first protagonist as he travels the world fighting the other game characters as he tries to find a worthy challenger, Ken as the second protagonist who finds himself on the run from Shadaloo who are trying to kill him, Guile and Chun-Li as the third and fourth protagonists as they investigate Bison and Shadaloo.

CorndogBurglar - 7/1/2025, 7:22 PM

@Nate212 - I have to disagree with that. I look at casting a plot decisions as two completely separate things.

I do agree that the last MK had fantastic casting. Everyone was at least good for their role/character. Some were even great!

But they could have nailed the casting while not making completely brain dead decisions with the story.

This is why I'll never be able to stop ragging on it. There were things to like, for sure. Casting. The fight scenes. Special effects, mostly. Good enough acting. The first 10 minutes were the best live action MK we've ever seen, without competition.

But things like adding Cole as the main character, tying him to Scorpion, and the whole dragon birthmark thing was just complete stupidity. And it would have been stupid regardless of the casting.

NonPlayerC - 7/1/2025, 7:59 PM

@DarthAlgar - yeah I like him as balrog too, he's a good actor as long as the director knows how to frame him.

dragon316 - 7/1/2025, 8:07 PM

@mountainman - if Hollywood didn’t think fifty cent could act he will never been picked but what do use average people know about acting effect and writing we never had job in Hollywood to know what good acting is and bad acting.,

If is average hard working people know anything about acting we be in movies and tv shows that shows proves we don’t know nothing about acting

Wahhvacado - 7/1/2025, 8:19 PM

@mountainman - It's so random in a way that I'm almost intrigued

TheJester187 - 7/1/2025, 8:57 PM

@mountainman - shit yo ass up! You never seen a 50 show or movie. That’s why he got the role lameman.

mountainman - 7/1/2025, 9:11 PM

@TheJester187 - I’ve seen Get Rich or Die Tryin, Popstar: Never Stop Stopping, and Expendables 4. Those 3 examples are more than enough of his acting prowess for me to witness.

KaptainKhaos - 7/1/2025, 5:23 PM

Love the cast, David Dastmalchian always gives 100% so I'm hyped

LibraMatter - 7/1/2025, 8:50 PM

@KaptainKhaos - Are you David Dastmalchin? Jk. I liked him in “Late Night with the Devil” and “Suicide Squad”.

KaptainKhaos - 7/1/2025, 10:17 PM

@LibraMatter - no, I am Groot.

Check him out in Last Voyage of the Dementor, he's one of the best parts of the movie

TheNewYorkerr - 7/1/2025, 5:25 PM

🤣 holy moly, that’s bad. Can’t wait to see people pretend this is the “perfect casting”. That shit don’t make any sense LOL

LenSpiderman - 7/1/2025, 5:25 PM

Odd. He can do character work, which would indicate that this is going to be campy whether they want it to be or not. He’s got to put in some muscle though, if he’s going to pull this off.

bobevanz - 7/1/2025, 5:29 PM

This is shaping up to be a campy messy movie, and I'm here for it!

TheVisionary25 - 7/1/2025, 5:29 PM

What a weird pick , he would not have been on my radar at all for this role but I guess you could say the same about Raul Julia aswell since both are still very talented actors but odd choices for Bison.

Dastmalchian as a villain has always felt more weaseley to me which Bison isn’t to me though depends on the characterization they are going for so we’ll see…

Anyway , I’ll certainly reserve my judgement on the casting for now until I see him in action and wish him the best in the role after Neal McDonough and the legendary Raul Julia in live action!!.

AllsNotGood - 7/1/2025, 5:30 PM

I bet @visionairy7766875577776 loves this casting

HistoryofMatt - 7/1/2025, 5:35 PM

Cody Rhodes has been confirmed as Guile.

TheFinestSmack - 7/1/2025, 6:34 PM

@HistoryofMatt - if this was a serious movie they would have gotten Alan Ritchson.

KaptainKhaos - 7/1/2025, 5:36 PM

Sidenote, it's kinda funny how I've seen people on fb are complaining about the race/nationality of Vega, Dan, Bison, Akuma being changed to mostly white with a sprinkle of American/Samoan

Almost as if they want......Diversity in the film 😜🥸

STREET FIGHTER Casts THE SUICIDE SQUAD Star David Dastmalchian As Lead Villain M. Bison

In what has to be the live-action Street Fighter movie’s most surprising addition yet, The Suicide Squad star David Dastmalchian has joined the cast as its lead villain, the formidable M. Bison!

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DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.