New ‘Street Fighter’ Trailer Is About Ken and Ryu’s Beef, but Guile Steals the Show

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Published Sep 1, 2026, 2:01 PM EDT

It seems like Ryu and Ken aren't on the best terms

Image: Legendary, Paramount

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The upcoming Street Fighter movie gets more ridiculous and promising with every trailer. Paramount Pictures and Legendary just released a new look at the film, highlighting what seems to be its central emotional hook: Ryu and Ken’s strained friendship.

We learn that Ryu (Andrew Koji) hesitantly enters the World Warriors Tournament after Chun-Li (Callina Liang) informs him that his old friend Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) has entered the dangerous competition. Ken resents his training partner and seems dead set on escaping his shadow. There are plenty of homages to the games, like E. Honda doing his infamous headbutt slam, Ryu whipping out a Tatsumaki spin-kick, and Chun-Li doing Lightning Legs. Ken and Ryu do their fist bump from Street Fighter 3, and David Dastmalchian hams it up as M. Bison; honestly, the film looks like a surprisingly fun time. The best line in the trailer comes when Guile (Cody Rhodes) yells at Dan after suffering a nasty slash to the face.

Legendary also posted a playable version of the trailer where the player/viewer performs quick time event prompts on an arcade cabinet. Many of the inputs are even accurate to the games, such as having the player perform a quarter circle forward motion in time with Ryu launching a Hadouken.

Has there ever been a Street Fighter movie before?

There have been several Street Fighter films in the past. Universal Pictures released the infamous live-action Street Fighter movie starring Jean-Claude Van Dammein 1994. While it was panned at the time, the one bright spot was Raul Julia’s excellent performance as M. Bison. After Chun-Li recounts the day Bison killed her father, he responds that he doesn’t remember and delivers the iconic line, “For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.” Beyond the live-action film, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie was also released in 1994, and it received a more positive reception.

It will be interesting to see whether the upcoming Street Fighter can accomplishthe difficult task of bringing the ridiculous world of fighting games to the screen; most previous attempts have fallen flat, with the Mortal Kombat films being the latest example. We’ll find out whether the movie can pull off a reversal when it hits theaters on Oct. 16, 2026.