Paramount released the official trailer for Street Fighter on Thursday, giving the first full look at the studio’s adaptation of the classic Capcom video game ahead of its presentation at CinemaCon. The movie, directed by Kitao Sakurai, is set to open in theaters on October 16.
The cast is built around Andrew Koji as Ryu, Noah Centineo as Ken Masters and Callina Liang as Chun-Li, with Jason Momoa, Roman Reigns and Orville Peck among the other names leading the film. Paramount and producer Legendary rolled out the footage before the CinemaCon presentation, putting the street fighter cast in front of audiences months before release.
The franchise has been a fixture in gaming since 1987, when the series launched around intense one-on-one battles between martial artists and, often, a global tournament tied to M. Bison and Shadaloo. It has since sold more than 55 million units worldwide, a number that explains why a new screen version still draws attention decades after the first game.
That history also raises the pressure on the movie’s ensemble, which includes David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Eric André as Don Sauvage, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, Orville Peck as Vega, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Alexander Volkanovski as Joe, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog and Jason Momoa as Blanka. The trailer’s early debut suggests Paramount and Legendary want the cast, not just the brand, to do the selling before the film reaches theaters on October 16.
For the studio, the question is no longer whether the franchise still has recognition. Thursday’s trailer answers that. The test now is whether this Street Fighter cast can turn a game series best known for its fighters into a movie audience will show up for in October.