The Eric Andre Show’s Kitao Sakurai to direct new Street Fighter movie

Legendary Entertainment’s live-action Street Fighter movie recently lined up a premiere date, and now it has a director in place. And hey, if The Eric Andre Show‘s Kitao Sakurai can’t entertain us with his spin on Capcom’s classic fighter, who can?

Sakurai—known for writing, directing, and producing The Eric Andre Show, as well as directing episodes of Twisted Metal—has been tapped to direct (via ). 🅘Legendary is co-producing along with Capcom, and Sony previously set its premiere for March 20, 2026. 

As for what aspects of the Street Fighter series the movie aims to tackle, those details have yet to be divulged. Will Sakurai get a chance to cover more recent hits like Street Fighter 6, or will this be the ultimate redemption arc for a well-aged Guile by way of🦩 Jean-Claude Van Damme?

Takin’ it to the streets 

The new Street Fighter movie was confirmed back in April 2023. At the time, twin Australian filmmaker duo Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to Me) were in talks to direct. 

Of course, one would be remiss not to mention the original 1994 live-action Street Fighter as much as possible in any related article. While historically maligned as a failure, the endlessly entertaining work of art starred the aforementioned Van Damme as Guile opposite Raul Julia in a powerful turn as M. Bison. Don’t listen to anyone who says writer and director Steven E. de Souza’s feature is anything other than a classic example of pure game-inspired camp. 

There was also 2009’s fair to middlin’ Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which starred Kristin Kreuk as Chun-Li and Chris Klein as Charlie Nash. The real Capcom film to beat, however, is 1994’s Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, a Gisaburo Sugii-directed and Group TAC-animated banger that hit all the right notes. So go ahead, Sakurai, do your best and your worst!