Street Fighter Movie Cast Are All Huge Fans, Director Reveals

Ever worried that a video game movie would be made by people who've never touched a controller? Not this one. According to Kitao Sakurai, the director of the upcoming Street Fighter movie, every single cast member is a genuine fan of the franchise. "Everybody that's in the movie is a fan of the game," he tells GamesRadar+. "There was nobody that I cast that was like, 'what's Street Fighter? What are we doing here?'"

That's right – no clueless actors pretending to know a Hadouken from a Hurricane Kick. Sakurai says the whole cast arrived with "a very deep understanding of like the canon and the lore." And when he needed a quick lore check on set, he knew exactly who to turn to: Andrew Koji, who plays Ryu. "Andrew Koji is a huge gamer and oftentimes I would lean on him for canon stuff," Sakurai reveals. Talk about a reliable Player 2.

But Koji isn't the only one with serious gaming cred. Callina Liang, who steps into Chun-Li's shoes, is what Sakurai calls "a legit gamer." He notes she's younger, so she grew up more on Street Fighter 6 – proving that the love for the series spans generations. "Everybody has different sort of connections to the game, but everybody definitely is coming from a place of loving the game," he adds.

That passion goes beyond just knowing the moves. Sakurai wants the movie to feel like it was ripped straight out of the '90s arcade era. "I wanted to, more than anything, make a movie that felt like it was like a '90s movie," he says. "If we could go back in time and make a game-accurate version of Street Fighter in the '90s, what would that be like?" Sounds like he's aiming for that quarter-draining, neon-lit vibe we all miss.

And yes, the cast apparently kept the competitive spirit alive between takes. According to those on set, there were more than a few rounds of Street Fighter on consoles. The reigning champ? Andrew Schulz, who plays Dan, reportedly proved his skills more than once. Let's just hope they saved some of those moves for the actual film.

Street Fighter hits theaters on October 16. With a cast this passionate and a director who clearly gets it, we might finally get the adaptation we've been waiting for. What do you think – will you be picking this up on opening weekend?