Street Fighter Movie Reveals Powered-Up Akuma and Iconic Move in New Footage

The Street Fighter trailers have featured no shortage of big moves and moments from the games, including iconic moves from Zangeif, Guile, Chun-Li, and more. There is one character that we haven’t seen a lot of at this point though, and that would be the insanely popular and ever-deadly fighter Akuma. WWE’s Roman Reigns will be playing the part of the classic fighter, and the latest Street Fighter movie footage finally reveals a powered-up version of the character along with an iconic Street Fighter move. You can watch the full footage below.

The clip reveals a look at the showdown between Akuma and Ryu, which shows Akuma’s eyes glowing as he asks for the nemesis he’s been waiting for. Akuma asks, “Where is my true opponent?” as the footage then switches to Ryu starting to power up. Akuma then launches into the air and sets up for an attack, and then the footage switches back to Ryu and gives us the epic Hadouken we’ve been waiting to see. More Akuma vs Ryu will hopefully follow in future trailers, but you can see the new footage in the video below.

Will Street Fighter Be A Box Office Hit?

It’s been a bit of rough sailing at the box office this year, especially for big IPs. While Toy Story 5 and Spider-Man: Brand New Day delivered big at the box office, other films came in below expectations, including Masters of the Universe, Supergirl, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, Minions & Monsters, and even the live-action Moana. That less-than-desired result also hit another fighting game adaptation in Mortal Kombat II, which is a good barometer for Street Fighter since they are in the same category.

Now, Street Fighter already looks to be a very different movie and overall approach to Mortal Kombat in terms of film adaptations, so they aren’t one-to-one. That said, Mortal Kombat has a built-in fanbase from the games and was overall well received, so if Street Fighter gets good reviews as well, they can’t help but be compared. The Mortal Kombat reboot from 2021 brought in over $84 million worldwide, though it was also worth mentioning that it was released in a landscape that was still heavily affected by the pandemic.

Given that the first one did well, especially for the timeframe it was released in, and was generally well received, many expected the sequel to do even better. It actually did, but just not by the leaps and bounds many expected, as Mortal Kombat II brought in over $129 million at the box office. A third film is still on the way as well.

That brings us to Street Fighter, and in this current climate, there is no such thing as a surefire hit, even for the most bankable of franchises. The buzz has been building for Street Fighter, and the trailers and character designs have been mostly positively received, so if the film can deliver a fun story and big action, we could be looking at a franchise starter.

Now, this isn’t Amazon behind this, so it does need to do well in order to get a sequel green-lit, but it also doesn’t have to do Brand New Day numbers to make that happen. If it were to best or match Mortal Kombat II’s box office return, I think there would be enough there to warrant a sequel for the studio, and if it does better than Mortal Kombat II, then it seems like a no-brainer, as you could lean into that with the marketing.

At least we don’t have to wait too long to find out, as Street Fighter hits theaters on October 16th.