Street Fighter’s Big Three Talk Bodies, Casting, and Sequels [Interview]

Andrew Koji (Ryu), Noah Centineo (Ken), and Callina Liang (Chun-Li) sat down with THS to talk about leading the charge in the latest adaptation of the beloved video game series. Director Kitao Sakurai’s bright and bludgeoning vision pops from the rip, and these young, talented stars bring an enthusiasm for the source material to the ‘fight,’ as it were.

Centineo gets to have a lot of the fun, playing an incarnation of Ken that feels exactly right. Koji is tasked with the more dour, serious character of the odd couple, and he has to hold down the majority of the plot points. Callina’s Chun-Li has an altogether different journey in this film, something of an origin story for what absolutely feels like a franchise launch. Plus, she also shares with us the biggest challenge of all: putting enough mass on those legendary thighs.

The chemistry among the trio is palpable in the conversation as they laugh and cajole one another about casting reads, gaining the requisite weight, and developing the on-camera dynamics that they sincerely hope lead to more films.

Whatever you can say about the finished product, it takes a bold approach (visually and literally), and everyone in it seems to be having a lot of fun.

Street Fighter: Plot, Cast, and Background

Set in 1993, Street Fighter follows Ryu and Ken Masters, whose friendship has fractured before the story begins. Chun-Li brings them back into the fighting world by recruiting them for the World Warrior Tournament. The competition gathers fighters for a series of confrontations, while a conspiracy behind the event complicates their return. Their shared history and unresolved differences are part of the setup, alongside the tournament itself.

The supporting cast includes David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Jason Momoa as Blanka, Cody Rhodes as Guile, and Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoaʻi as Akuma. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson plays Balrog, while Vidyut Jammwal takes on Dhalsim. Andrew Schulz appears as Dan Hibiki, and Eric André plays Don Sauvage. They join Koji, Centineo, and Liang in bringing the game’s characters to live action.

Kitao Sakurai directs the film, with its theatrical opening set for October 16, 2026.

As countless fans know, the source material dates back to Capcom’s original 1987 arcade game. Street Fighter II followed in 1991 and helped establish competitive fighting games as a major arcade genre. Its format put players into head-to-head matches built around punches, kicks, and character-specific special moves. The sequel reached home consoles the following year, extending its audience beyond arcades. The signature moves of characters like E. Honda, Chun-Li, and Ryu and Ken have become cultural touchstones almost everyone knows all about. The game infiltrated culture in a massive way.

Over the decades, the series has expanded through additional games, comics, animation, live-action films, books, and merchandise. The core characters and signature attacks have remained central to that expansion. The new film returns those fighters to a tournament setting, with the 1993 period placing its story close to the years when Street Fighter II first became popular, and thus capitalizing on the era’s nostalgia and giving the film a starting point for a look & feel that could stand out from the rest. There is a playfulness to this version, evidenced in our interview with the leads, that takes adaptations away from the overly trodden dark and gritty formula that has defined the last few decades.

Watch the full THS interview here. Street Fighter opens in theaters October 16.

Watch the Street Fighter Trailer

More: THS’s coverage of the playable trailer and Paramount’s film page.