Given the success of the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot and the excitement around the upcoming sequel releasing in November, it was really only a matter of time before some bigwig at the studios blew the dust off their 8-bit video game cartridges and put together another live-action Street Fighter movie. No, we’re not talking about a sequel to that cursed Jean-Claude Van Damme version from the ’90s that gave us Raul Julia’s final, gloriously campy performance as M. Bison. We’re talking fresh cast, new direction, and a movie that could actually be… good.
Well, it looks like things are finally heating up for the Street Fighter reboot. The first casting news is here: Callina Liang as Chun-Li, Andrew Koji as Ryu, Noah Centineo as Ken, Jason Momoa as Blanka, WWE’s Roman Reigns as Akuma, and country singer Orville Peck as Vega. Now, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson himself has shared a report by Nexus Point News that he’s in talks to play Balrog, the disgraced boxer-turned-Shadaloo-enforcer. His post reads: “No Days off, Let’s work all roads lead to Shreveport 💣Boom💨@50centaction.”
That pretty much sounds like a done deal, right?
Balrog, for those who skipped Street Fighter lore classes, is basically modelled after 1980s Mike Tyson. First introduced in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior back in 1991, he’s a brutal Vegas-born prizefighter banned from pro boxing. He was responsible for broken jaws, broken rules, and plenty of “accidental” deaths in the ring. Naturally, that made him the perfect guy for M. Bison’s terror squad, Shadaloo.
Now, does 50 Cent look like Balrog? Not exactly. The Street Fighter character was basically drawn over a picture of Mike Tyson mid-uppercut. But Jackson’s got the resume to pull it off. The man’s been shot nine times, survived the music industry, and launched a small empire on screen and off. He’s produced and starred in Power, popped up in The Expendables 4, Southpaw, Den of Thieves, and even led his own semi-autobiographical film with Get Rich or Die Tryin’. 50 Cent is not new to playing dangerous, street-hardened characters. Because he kind of was one.
And, obviously, Mike Tyson can’t play Balrog anymore. He’s 58. Still terrifying, yes, but he’s not jumping into the ring for Capcom. Funny enough, Tyson didn’t even know he was the inspiration for Balrog. In a 2019 interview with ESPN, presenter Arda Ocal showed Tyson the character sprite. His reaction was pure shock: “Holy moly,” Tyson said. “Does he look like me?”
After a quick Street Fighter history lesson, Tyson, thankfully, laughed it off and admitted: “I’m really honoured with that impersonation of me.”
The upcoming Street Fighter film seems to be in good hands. The reboot is being directed by Kitao Sakurai, who proved himself with the Twisted Metal series, and written by Dalan Musson, who worked on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Captain America: Brave New World. It’s being developed by Legendary Pictures with Capcom and distributed by Sony, although it’s recently been pulled from the release schedule and moved to the “coming soon-ish” column.
Still, with this cast and 50 Cent potentially landing a knockout role as Balrog, this might finally be the Street Fighter movie fans actually want to watch.
