Throughout the promotion leading up to Street Fighter, one aspect that has been highlighted is how accurately Capcom‘s iconic video game world has been brought to life on the big screen. 2026 has been a strong year for Capcom-related titles, with Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil adaptation earning critical praise and Street Fighter gearing up for a highly anticipated mid-October release. Now, the video game movie is leveling up and transcending the live-action medium in an exciting, unique way, further accentuating the Street Fighter franchise’s aesthetic and high-octane energy. As it turns out, the upcoming film will include an unexpected visual shift that fans will surely appreciate.
DiscussingFilm can exclusively reveal that director Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip, The Eric Andre Show) partnered with animation studio Titmouse to create hand-drawn animated sequences for Street Fighter. To give viewers a sense of the animation to expect, we are also debuting a never-before-seen featurette that offers a behind-the-scenes look at how these segments were made. Similar to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Street Fighter dives into Ken (Noah Centineo) and Ryu’s (Andrew Koji) backstories through flashbacks drawn entirely in 2D animation. Sakurai explains how his upbringing in Japan and Street Fighter‘s cultural legacy shaped these previously unannounced, unseen sections of the movie, cleverly hidden from marketing until now.
A brief glimpse of the film’s animated sequences only reinforces the franchise’s overall appeal. The Street Fighter games are popular not only for their groundbreaking mechanics and dynamic fighting styles, but also for their bombastic visuals. Titmouse clearly put a lot of work into this assignment, as Sakurai describes his love for ’90s anime classics like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, which helped inspire the look of these animated scenes and the level of detail that went into producing them.
The creatives at Titmouse get a chance to shine in this featurette, explaining how they brought the film’s fluid 2D animation to life, frame by frame. As a Street Fighter anime proof-of-concept, these segments explore how Ryu and Ken’s training ultimately drove them apart and introduce Roman Reigns‘ Akuma in terrifying glory. And yes, the characters are modeled after the star-studded cast, who all voice their respective roles in these scenes too. By making these animated sequences exclusively flashbacks, they become more than a novelty; they’re an important part of the plot that feeds into the conflicts and relationships seen throughout the rest of the narrative.
For Ken and Ryu, the shift in their relationship will undoubtedly be at the heart of these animated sequences and carry thematic weight into the live-action parts of the film as it shifts between mediums. Not to mention Akuma’s presence, which is only shown briefly to get general audiences and fans of the games excited for this role in the story of Street Fighter.
Video game adaptations have always had an uphill battle in the theatrical landscape, especially when they are made in live-action. Part of the challenge is making larger-than-life characters and situations pop as much as they do when a player controls them in a computer-graphics video game. To that end, Street Fighter uses multiple mediums to capture the essence of the historic Capcom franchise as accurately as possible, both visually and thematically.
‘Street Fighter’ hits theaters on October 16!
Directed by Kitao Sakurai.
Screenplay by T.J. Fixman & Kitao Sakurai.
Story by Dalan Musson & Gary Dauberman.
Based on Street Fighter by Capcom.
Produced by Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Jason Momoa, Takayuki Nakayama, & Stefan Makhoul.
Executive Producers: Jay Ashenfelter, JJ Hook, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, & Kenzo Tsujimoto.
Main Cast: Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Eric André, Andrew Schulz, Vidyut Jammwal, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jason Momoa, Orville Peck, Olivier Richters, Hirooki Goto, Mel Jarnson, Rayna Vallandingham, Alexander Volkanovski, Kyle Mooney, & Don Lee.
Cinematographer: Ken Seng.
Composers: Leo Birenberg & Zach Robinson.
Editor: Luke Lynch.
Production Companies: Legendary Pictures & Capcom.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures.
Runtime: 120 minutes.
Rated PG-13.
