Video game company Capcom has announced that it is partnering with Legendary Entertainment to produce a live-action film as well as TV series based on its acclaimed Street Fighter video game series.
Although Capcom is making the announcement official for the first time, The Hollywood Reporter earlier reported that Legendary has acquired the film and TV rights to Street Fighter.
The move will allow Capcom to enhance its brands via its ‘Single Content Multiple Usage’ strategy to further bolster its global sales in the video game software business. Sounds a lot like a transmedia strategy to us…
With the success of previous video game adaptations such as The Last of Us, Capcom believes that adapting its hugely popular Street Fighter franchise into movies and TV series will provide new opportunities to build its brand awareness with a wider audience that goes beyond the video game market.
And by partnering with Legendary, a mass media company with a track record of numerous successful films such as Pacific Rim and Kong vs Godzilla movies, Capcom hopes the partnership will also enhance the value of its intellectual properties across the globe.
Ever since the first title in the franchise was released as an arcade game in 1987, Street Fighter 2 also became a success when it launched in 1991, paving the way towards a franchise that has become one of the best fighting games ever made.
An era of video game adaptations
The announcement also comes at a time when fans of the franchise are eagerly waiting to get their hands on Street Fighter 6, the next big instalment in the video game series that’s scheduled to launch on June 2nd, 2023.
While it’ll take months or even years before we actually get to see a live-action film and TV series of Street Fighter, we hope the adaptations won’t fail to incorporate some of the unique style and jaw-dropping fighting moves we know and love from the games.
There are numerous other live-action adaptations lined up, many of which are looking to follow the footsteps of Sonic the Hedgehog and HBO’s The Last of Us. In the coming months, we hope to hear the news that filming has commenced for the live-action God of War series (Amazon) as well as the Horizon Zero Dawn series (Netflix).
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
