The New Street Fighter Movie Finally Gets Ryu Right - MCE Notices | California State Portal

Warner Bros. Pictures’ Mortal Kombat films began a renaissance for adaptations of fighting games, and that will continue later this year with Paramount Pictures’ Street Fighter. The Street Fighter franchise has already come to the big screen a couple of times, but the upcoming project is primed to be the most accurate version yet. This is due in part to the film’s contributions from Takayuki Nakayama, the director of the games Street Fighter V and Street Fighter VI.

Game Informer recently interviewed Nakayama regarding the actors who will bring Street Fighter‘s iconic World Warriors to life. Nakayama praised several members of the cast, but he said that the best was Andrew Koji, who will portray Ryu. He explained, “[Koji] had a lot of respect for the series and the original game. He always had this, ‘What would Ryu do?’ mentality, and tried to get into his mind.” This is an exciting development for Street Fighter fans, as it will make up for a flaw of the first live-action Street Fighter film from 1994.

Ryu Has Not Fared Well in Live-Action Street Fighter Films

Image via Universal Pictures

Ryu is the main protagonist of the Street Fighter games and the face of the franchise. He and his friendly rival Ken Masters, who began as a mere palette swap of Ryu, are the only two characters who have been playable in every Street Fighter game. Ryu canonically won the first World Warrior Tournament, and in Street Fighter V, he defeated series antagonist M. Bison. Capcom has tried to introduce new protagonists on occasion, like Street Fighter III‘s Alex and Street Fighter VI‘s Luke Sullivan, but none have resonated with fans quite like Ryu.

Despite his importance to the games, the 1994 Street Fighter film did not do Ryu justice. Aiming to capture the success of G.I. Joe, the film focused on a military conflict with Bison’s criminal organization, Shadaloo, rather than a fighting tournament. As such, characters like Ryu and Ken were pushed to the side in favor of Colonel William Guile, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme.

During the few scenes in which he appeared, Ryu displayed little in common with his video game counterpart. Rather than a Japanese martial artist wandering the world in search of strong opponents, Ryu was an American con artist who attempted to sell fake weapons to Shadaloo. His personality differed as well, defined by sarcasm and quips rather than stoicism and determination.

Actor Byron Mann gave an enjoyable performance, but it was largely divorced from the character whom Street Fighter fans know and love. The 2009 film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li then excluded Ryu, only mentioning him in the final scene to set up a sequel that never happened.

The New Street Fighter Film Will Make Ryu Matter

There have been no live-action Street Fighter films since 2009, but the unfortunate trend of fighting game protagonists being overlooked continued in the recent Mortal Kombat adaptations. Though Ludi Lin’s portrayal of Liu Kang was relatively accurate to his counterpart from the Mortal Kombat games, he did not have a leading role in either film, with Cole Young and Johnny Cage starring in his place.

Protagonists may seem less interesting to filmmakers since they tend to be some of the more straightforward characters on fighting game rosters, but they deserve to be treated well on the big screen. Luckily, the upcoming Street Fighter film has a chance to fix the franchise’s treatment of Ryu. The trailers have indicated that Ken, as played by Noah Centino, will be the main character, but Ryu will still have a major part to play.

The upcoming film will depict Ryu as the retired champion of the first World Warrior Tournament, with him telling Chun-Li, “The path I’m on now is not one of combat.” However, he will seemingly enter the second World Warrior Tournament to stop Bison’s evil scheme, mending his friendship with Ken along the way. Nakayama believes that Koji embodies the games’ version of Ryu, finally giving fans of the character the adaptation that they deserve.