Despite rumors that the movie had been shelved, we recently got word that Legendary and Capcom's planned live-action Street Fighter reboot would be moving forward with Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip) at the helm, and the casting process has now begun.
After originally being reported by Nexus Point News, Deadline has now confirmed that Andrew Koji and Noah Centineo are in talks to play the co-lead roles of Ryu and Ken, respectively, and Jason Momoa and WWE pro-wrestler Roman Reigns (real name Leati Joseph Anoaʻi) are also said to be in negotiations.
Jeff Sneider believes that Reigns has been cast as the villainous Akuma, the man who killed Ryu and Ken's trainer and his own older brother Gouken, while several sources are reporting that Momoa will take on the role of green-skinned fan-favorite, Blanka.
Koji starred in the recently cancelled Warrior Cinemax series and also played Storm Shadow in the G.I. JOE Snake Eyes movie. Centineo, who was originally set to play He-Man before the Masters of the Universe movie was revamped, has appeared in the likes of To All The Boys and The Recruit.
Momoa will obviously be best-known for Game of Thrones, Dune, and Aquaman, and was recently confirmed to play Lobo in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
Though numerous characters have been introduced over the years, Ryu and his best friend/rival Ken Masters have remained at the forefront of the Street Fighter video game franchise. Both fighters had very similar move sets, including the Dragon Punch and "Hadoken" fireball.
Capcom's Street Fighter series remains one of the most popular fighting games franchises of all time, but hasn't fared very well with live-action adaptations up until now. The 1994 movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue has amassed a cult following over the years, but is still widely regarded as a misfire, and the less said about 2009's Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li the better!
We know next to nothing about this latest take on the property, so it's impossible to say whether it will break the trend. The majority of fans would seem to prefer a Ryu-focused story, but there is a lot of Street Fighter lore to mine from at this stage.
Sakurai, who stepped in to replace original directors Danny and Michael Philippou, is probably best known for writing, directing and exec producing The Eric Andre Show, and has also directed the pilot and several episodes of the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series Butterfly, as well as episodes of Peacock’s video game adaptation Twisted Metal.
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