Street Fighter has always been a successful gaming franchise, but mass media attempts have been a mixed bag. After a misguided Jean-Claude Van Damme feature film, a Chun-Li standalone film, and a bunch of animated features, the franchise finally found acclaim with a live-action web series released back in 2014. Now, eOne has secured the team behind that feature and the rights to a (potentially) kick-ass television series, for a project that if successful could rise higher than a Shoryuken.
This new Street Fighter series doesn't have a name, release date, or episode count, but the show's story has been revealed. The series is based on the World Warrior story-arc first seen in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, which is one of the highest grossing video games of all time. The show will follow the characters Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Guile as they look to defeat the leader of the global criminal organization Shadaloo, M. Bison. The ensemble will link up down the line, as each fighter is drawn into the World Warrior Tournament, which is an event organized by Bison to find the world's most capable fighter.
The Street Fighter series has Joey Ansah, Jacqueline Quella, and Mark Wooding on board as executive producers, which would seem to bode well for this series. Those three individuals were responsible the 2014 Machinima web series Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist which has been regarded as one of the most accurate adaptations of the video game franchise to date. Ansah wrote and directed Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist, which would go on to generate around 16 million views with its initial release in 2014. The success of the series led Capcom to announce a sequel later that year. Deadline reports that the original plans for that sequel likely became the premise for this new Street Fighter series.
The new Street Fighter series enlisting some of the same folks who made Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist is certainly a great start for the show, but not a guarantee this series will be a home run. Creating a web series and a full-length television show can be two entirely different beasts, and Joey Ansah's first follow-up to Assassin's Fist project, Street Fighter: Resurrection, didn't receive close to the same acclaim as his first outing. That said, one project doesn't always determine how another may or may not turn out, so really the best anyone can do is wait and see if this series can live up to the hype.
The untitled Street Fighter series is still a long way away from premiering on any network, but more information is sure to come down the road. In the meantime, interested parties can distract themselves with some of the other great television coming in 2018, most of which will be found by visiting our midseason premiere guide.
