Legendary Entertainment has acquired the film and TV rights to Capcom’s beloved video game franchise Street Fighter.
According to Deadline, a movie is already in development, which would make it the first live-action feature since 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, starring Kristin Kreuk as the titular character. The most notable entry came in 1994 with the Jean-Claude Van Damme-led Street Fighter.
The first game hit in 1987, while the latest, Street Fighter 6, is coming this June.
The news of a Street Fighter flick continues the revitalized trend of repurposing popular video games for shows and films. The HBO series The Last of Us became the network’s second-highest viewed premiere over the last decade after amassing 22 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The second episode pulled in even greater numbers, jumping 22 percent. The increasingly positive returns led to HBO’s decision to renew The Last of Us for a second season.
Last year Uncharted, starring Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland, eclipsed the $400 million mark at the worldwide box office; its source material was a series from developer Naughty Dog, which also created The Last of Us. And on the very near horizon on the games-as-movies front, The Super Mario Bros. Movie hits theaters later this week. It features a star-studded voice cast which includes Chris Pratt (Mario), Anya Taylor-Joy (Princess Peach), Seth Rogen (Donkey Kong), Jack Black (Bowser), Charlie Day (Luigi), and Keegan-Michael Key (Toad).
