Any movie with plans to launch a new franchise these days tends to have a plan in place for more. In the case of Street Fighter, which ends on a cliffhanger, it’s abundantly obvious that there’s a longer story in play. How long? According to Zangief actor Olivier Richters, as quoted at IGN from a YouTube comment he posted, it’s at least a trilogy, as all the main cast signed up for three films. Richters added that part of the reason you don’t see every character get a one-on-one fight is that some are being saved for sequels, which would imply that Guile, Cammy, and Dan, at minimum, should get some bouts in any future installments.
“When they asked me to play Zangief, it was all very clear,” he wrote. “There was one goal: Show a [glimpse] of Zangief and his power, so we all want more. All actors, including me, signed for three movies. ‘If a sequel is made, Zangief will shine,’ was the promise.”
While the movie has made $76 million worldwide thus far, and was #1 in its first weekend, that may not be enough to get us more Zangief. The budget was reported at $82 million, and it’ll have to do more than that to guarantee another. Given the fact that the mid-credit sequel tease is animated, it’s also possible a fully animated sequel could be done more cheaply. Street Fighter has seen two English-language live-action adaptations before, one in 1994 starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and another in 2009 starring Kristin Kreuk. Neither one earned a sequel, though the 1994 version has gained a cult following over the years, largely due to Raul Julia’s scenery chewing final role as M. Bison.
There’s also some irony in Street Fighter being planned as a trilogy, since there was a running gag at the height of the second game’s popularity that Capcom couldn’t count to three. Street Fighter II was a massive hit from its release in 1991, but Capcom didn’t make a direct sequel until 1997. Instead, they kept upgrading Street Fighter II, and when they’d seemingly exhausted all those options, the next title was the prequel Street Fighter Alpha, and following that, the 3D Street Fighter EX. Once part three finally came out, though, more straightforward numerical sequels followed.
So if it were to become a trilogy, Paramount could lean into the in-joke by calling the second one Street Fighter: Champion Edition and the third one Super Street Fighter Turbo. Randomly changing all the main characters’ outfits could add to the effect. That might seem a stretch, but the first film leans so heavily into its in-jokes that the filmmakers are clearly unafraid of them. This is already clearly a parallel Earth, one where Four Non-Blondes were around already in 1987, and the ability of spiritually attuned fighters to throw fireballs presumably changed world history like the arrival of Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen.
As for Richters, Zangief may be his most visible role to date, but the 7-foot-3 Dutch bodybuilder has quite a successful acting career going regardless, having appeared in Marvel’s Black Widow, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The King’s Man, Borderlands, and the Reacher streaming series. Like Hafthor Julius Bjornsson, a.k.a. Game of Thrones‘ Mountain and Masters of the Universe‘s Goat Man, he has found there’s a thriving market for giant musclemen in fantasy and action movies. Sequel or no sequel, he should be fine.
Do you want to see more Street Fighter movies in this series? If so, who needs to get a big fight scene? Kick it with us in the comments and hit us with ideas.
