The Street Fighter movie has one of the weirdest and wackiest beats from the game series in the trailer, and it’s got me more excited for the reboot than ever. Street Fighter is the latest adaptation of the classic video game series, which has been brought to life several times before in various films.
None of the previous adaptations quite got the right balance of hard-hitting action and bizarrely colorful charm. 2026’s Street Fighter seems to be the exception to that rule, with the trailer for the film including a lot of fun beats and over-the-top elements. One scene in particular has me convinced this film fully understands what makes Street Fighter so enduring.
Street Fighter Will Pit Someone Against A Car
One of the strangest (and most exciting) elements of the Street Fighter trailer is the inclusion of a scene where someone beats up a car. Taken directly from the original game series of the same name, the moment comes at the end of the trailer and seems to be taking part in a large fighting arena.
Given other shots in the trailer, it seems that the moment comes as a fighter trying to showcase their prowess by destroying an automobile with their bare hands. It’s an impressive feat of strength in the real world, but the sort of thing most of the franchise’s greatest fighters can easily pull off.
The sequence pulls from a bonus stage from Street Fighter II, where players are instructed told to wreck the car. It’s meant to teach players the importance of mixing up their attack approach, as repeated combos do less damage to the vehicle. It’s also a great showcase of the franchise’s somewhat goofy approach to combat.
The sight of a sumo wrestler beating up a car is an inherently strange one, but it’s not even among the ten oddest elements of Street Fighter. The fact that it’s in the movie and treated as a small but distinct moment suggests that the film is embracing the bizarre touches of the games. I couldn’t be happier about that.
Street Fighter Is A Weird Series, And Is Best When It Embraces That
The Street Fighter franchise has been one of the gold standards of gaming for a while, with the colorful characters and memorable visuals helping it stand out from the more gruesome touches of Mortal Kombat or the more grounded approach of the Virtua Fighter series. That weirdness is key to the charm of the series.
It’s also something that, when absent, makes the franchise far more forgettable. This is a balancing act best exemplified by the Street Fighter film from 1994. The movie took a lot of liberties with the source material, reinventing plenty of characters and giving them very different backstories.
Those elements of the film were the most forgettable, lacking the flourish and outlandish personality that helped define the gaming series. As a result, the game adaptation largely just felt like a standard action film. The movie’s highlights, like Raul Julia as the scene-chewing M. Bison or the purposefully dim-witted Zeigief played by Andrew Bryniarski, embrace the silliness.
It’s something that helps Street Fighter stand out and gives the otherwise potentially brutal fights and weird elements a sense of colorful charm. It’s crucial to the enduring strength of the games, as they have firmly established themselves as something unique in the crowded fighting game field.
The new Street Fighter movie following suit is a very encouraging development, with sequences like someone beating up a car for the entertainment of a crowd serving as more than just a fun easter egg. It can be seen as a crucial example of tone, a confirmation that this is a bizarre world where this is the norm.
I wanted the next Street Fighter movie to be wild, and the trailer did a great job of suggesting the filmmakers are on the same page with me. Instead of another drab adaptation like The Legend of Chun-Li or mixed bags like 1994’s Street Fighter, the new film seems to understand the tonal balance inherent to the series.
Street Fighter
- Release Date
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October 15, 2026
- Director
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Kitao Sakurai
- Writers
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Dalan Musson
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Noah Centineo
Ken Masters
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The fact that Street Fighter seems to be including the car-fighting bonus round as a real moment in the film instead of just a throwaway background gag indicates that the filmmakers understand the appeal of the series. It’s why, as a lifelong fan of the games, I’m so excited for the Street Fighter movie.
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