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Street Fighter is a personal movie for its cast according to director Kitao Sakurai
Both Balrog and Vega's actors felt a deep connection with their characters, which will hopefully make Street Fighter an even better movie.
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The Street Fighter franchise has never been about deep, meaningful lore. A bunch of people get into a fighting tournament, a couple of cars get punched, and maybe the world is saved from a superpowered cult leader. However, the actors for Vega and Balrog in the 2026 Street Fighter remake have a personal connection to the characters they’re playing and reasons for wanting to do them justice.
“Everybody had a really deep, personal connection to the characters,” director Kitao Sakurai said in a recent interview with Empire magazine. “Orville Peck plays Vega, and he had a very touching story, where his sexual awakening as a gay man came about by playing Street Fighter. With Vega, he was like, ‘There’s something about this character that is speaking to me,’ and that was a huge part of his identity and how he discovered who he was. He cared about that character as a kid. The same goes for 50 Cent – Balrog was the first Black video game character he played as.”
We’re sure that something in Blanka spoke to Jason Momoa just as strongly, considering how intensely he wanted to play him, going as far as to simply cast himself in the role. This also explains why 50 Cent was so eager to announce that he was playing Balrog, even going so far as to announce he was in the movie before the studio got a chance to.
The cast of Street Fighter gets their chance to shine on October 16, 2026 when the movie finally has its release date.
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