Flip-Flop of God: The reason why Sagat wanted revenge on Ryu alternates between two very different scenarios almost every other game. Either Ryu defeated Sagat in the first World Warrior tournament, and Sagat was filled with bitterness. Or Sagat beat Ryu, almost to death, in the original tournament, and as Sagat was helping Ryu up, Ryu gave into the Satsui no Hado, and scarred Sagat with a cheap shot Metsu Shoryuken, also giving him his scar. The former event is canon as of the time of Street Fighter V, but it could easily be reverted in the future.
Several former and current professional players are now or have worked behind the scenes with Capcom on their games. Specifically David Sirlin, who worked on Super Street Fighter II HD Remix and Seth Killian, who was formerly the "Special Adviser for Street Fighter" among other things. HD Remix also had a soundtrack done by artists from Over Clocked Re Mix meaning that the entire game's soundtrack was done by promoted fanboys.
The English cast are longtime fans as well: Laura Bailey was the only one who auditioned for Chun-Li who knew who she was going in and when her husband, and voice of Guile, Travis Willingham started reading, he recognized the move names right away and knew it was for Street Fighter.
Renamed to Avoid Association: Ken did not have a last name until action figures based on the second game where released, at which point it was felt prudent to add the surname "Masters" so there would be no confusion with the Ken of Mattel's Barbie line of toys.
Sequel Gap: There's been some sizable gaps between the numbered installments since the release of Street Fighter II, going by the initial releases. There was a 6-year gap between 1991's II and 1997's Street Fighter III, an 11-year gap between III and 2008's Street Fighter IV, an 8-year gap between IV and 2016's Street Fighter V, and a 7-year gap between V and Street Fighter 6. This of course ignores the updated releases, DownloadableExpansion Packs, games like the Alpha and EX series, and the crossovers where the Street Fighter cast made an appearance.
Urban Legend of Zelda: The infamous Sheng Long rumor, perhaps the first and most famous example of this. Several other Street Fighter-related legends are outlined on that trope's page.
Ability over Appearance: Kylie Minogue was cast at the last minute before filming started in Queensland despite not resembling Cammy's usual depiction as an Amazonian Beauty because they needed an actress who could learn the lines fast (she had previously appeared on Neighbours).
Approval of God: Street Fighter V and Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama expressed fondness for the movie, saying he enjoyed the storyline and setting, "even the messed up parts", and credited it with expanding the franchise's reach beyond video games.
Raúl Juliá's reason for making this film was because his kids thought it would be cool, so he did it for them.
Damian Chapa only did the film because he wanted to work with Juliá, thinking that the film must be "something special" to involve such an actor. Also his son was a fan of the games.
Wes Studi is one of the few principal actors with no Old Shame feelings; he took the role excited to play a kickboxer and loved training with Benny "The Jet" Urquidez.
Budget-Busting Element: The film had a budget of $35 million, of which $8 million was spent - at Capcom's insistence - on hiring Jean-Claude Van Damme to play protagonist Guile. To balance out the books, a number of roles had to be filled by unknown actors, and some of the special effects ended up being quite shoddy because there wasn't enough money left for anything better. Worse still, the casting of the conspicuously Belgian Van Damme as the canonically all-American Guile ended up being a notorious case of Questionable Casting.
California Doubling: During the assault scenes on Bison's fortress, the Gold Coast hinterlands of Queensland, Australia fill in for Southeast Asia. The copious number of gumtrees and casuarinas make it rather obvious.
Cast the Runner-Up: Capcom producers from Japan advocated casting a Japanese actor in the role of Ryu, and had envisioned Kenya Sawada for the part. However, Sawada barely spoke any English, so the American producers pushed for the casting of Byron Mann on the basis that his humorous interaction with Damian Chapa (Ken) would be integral and dependent on the performer's fluency in English. As a compromise, Sawada was cast as a newly invented character, Captain Sawada, but according to Mann, Sawada took the rejection pretty bad, and didn't get along with him.
Christmas Rushed: Part of the reason for the Troubled Production is because, despite being behind schedule, executives didn't want to delay the film from its original December release date. The toyline, which came out on the week of Black Friday for that year, was also part of the reason.
Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: The making-of featurette describes Sagat as "a gladiator that challenges Guile's fighting abilities". The two never fight each other at all, and the only time they interact is when Sagat is in Guile's custody near the beginning of the film.
Creator Killer: This was the first and last theatrical film Steven E. de Souza ever directed. It was also one of the last big budget blockbusters he ever wrote, after his previous successes with films like Die Hard, Commando and The Running Man.
Darkhorse Casting: Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá were already big names (with the latter deciding upon the film so he could go out with a bang), and a few of the supporting cast (most notably Kylie Minogue) were known for reasons other than acting, but most of the actors were played by relative unknowns, for example Byron Mann as none other than Series Mascot Ryu. Justified, as the casting of Van Damme blew most of the film's casting budget.
The making-of featurette included a clip of Ryu and Ken pointing at each other when Sagat determines who will challenge Vega, which wasn't in the film itself.
One short scene of Chun-Li, in disguise, getting the dynamite from E. Honda and Balrog.
A longer scene of Cammy confronting Chun-Li and the two getting into a fight, which Chun-Li wins and escapes.
Scenes where Dhalsim's hair gradually fell out as a result of the chemical bath were left on the cutting room floor.
A scene of Ryu using the Shoryuken on Sagat was cut, presumably for violence, but can be seen in the comic book adaptation.
Over thirty hours of footage for the viewscreens in Bison's headquarters were recorded for a two-and-a-half-hour movie.
De Souza only wanted to use seven characters from Street Fighter II in order to ensure a tighter, more coherent script. Capcom instead forced him to include nearly everyone from the game, despite it needlessly complicating the story.
Capcom also meddled with the casting, insisting that Jean-Claude Van Damme play Guile despite not being American and Not Even Bothering with the Accent, and that Kenya Sawada play Ryu despite barely speaking any English. They got their way with the former, costing a significant chunk of the film's budget in the process, and only backed down on the latter on the condition that an original character be created for Sawada to play instead, inflating the film's cast even further.
Hasbro handled the movie's toy line, and would make demands about vehicles and weapons to make sure they matched the action figures.
Money, Dear Boy: Juliá wanted the money for the role so he'd be able to make sure his two sons were taken care of after his impending death from cancer.
Posthumous Credit: Raúl Juliá is given a credit in this film since he completed his scenes shortly before dying of a stroke in October 1994.
Recursive Adaptation: Had not one, but two video games based on it, both titled Street Fighter: The Movie, one for the arcades and the other for home consoles. Despite having the same title, they're not ports of each other.
Serendipity Writes the Plot: The final amphibious attack on M. Bison's compound, filmed on location in Thailand, was originally supposed to be an air assault. The Thai government wouldn't allow the use of its airspace for the large number of aircraft the scene would require, so the producers changed the final battle to a boat assault instead.
Raúl Juliá knew that he was about to make his last film, because his health problems worsened after he underwent surgery for stomach cancer, so he let his kids choose his last role.
Damian Chapa initially turned down the role of Ken, as he wanted to do more serious, dramatic roles. His son helped convince him to take the part.
Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo's children, nephews, and nieces were all fans of Street Fighter II. It was humorously stated on his Upper Deck trading card that they would have disowned him if he didn't take the role as E. Honda.
Grand L. Bush was convinced by his family to take up the role as Balrog.
Spared by the Cut: Vega was supposed to die after being impaled on his own claws. The scene was heavily re-edited after the MPAA threatened the movie with an R-rating, which is why in the finished film, Vega is knocked to the ground by Ryu in an awkward cut and then just lays there, as well as why he's never seen again after that.
The film became a minor case of this trope for Jean-Claude Van Damme; he was relegated to the B-list of martial arts superstars for 15 years until his self-titled movie, but kept a large following.
Chage and Aska, a very popular Japanese music duo at the time, tried to enter the American market by releasing both a song and a music video for the film. It failed to chart, and they never tried again. The duo remained somewhat popular in Japan until they went on hiatus in 2009. They came back in 2013, but Aska and his girlfriend were arrested for drug possession in 2014.note He received a 3 year suspended sentence. They would split up in 2019.
Kenya Sawada, who played Captain Sawada in the film, was a promising up-and-coming Japanese actor who was also in the process of becoming Capcom's "live action" mascot. Capcom's experiment didn't pan out and he never had a role in Hollywood ever again, although his career in Japan was unaffected.
Kylie Minogue never starred in a Hollywood film again (well, she wasn't the star of Bio-Dome...). She decided to focus on her musical career instead.
Gregg Rainwater's (T. Hawk) acting career imploded after one more starring role in 1997. He's now a voice actor and was an art director for America's Got Talent for three seasons.
Damian Chapa didn't get another role in a Hollywood for three years after the film was released. His career never properly recovered, and became a producer and director instead. He mostly stars in his own films.
Street Fighter was Jay Tavare's (Vega) first role. He was relegated to doing mostly voice acting and having bit parts in Hollywood after it, although he has continued to get cast in big productions. Modern gamers would probably know him as Code Talker.
Like Ming-Na, Byron Mann (Ryu) basically had his film career derailed, but continues to work in TV and bit-parts in the occasional big production like The Big Short.
Just barely avoided by Wes Studi (Sagat), who was a well-established dramatic actor long before this.
Stillborn Franchise: In 2003, the movie was slated to finally have a sequel. Van Damme and Damien Chapa were to return as Guile and Ken, respectively, Holly Valance was to take over for Kylie Minogue as Cammy, Byron Mann was in talks to return as Ryu and Dolph Lundgren was supposed to appear in an unspecified role. However, once the rights to the franchise left Universal and went to Fox, the sequel was scrapped and turned into a reboot called Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which was far less received than this cult classic. In the sequel, it would have been revealed that Blanka and Dhalsim survived and the chemicals that made Dhalsim bald also gave him his stretching powers.
Swan Song: Invoked. Raúl Juliá knew he was dying of cancer and decided to be part of the production because it would provide a paycheck large enough to help his family when he was gone, and because his children liked the game a lot.
Juliá ad-libbed Bison's "I guess you didn't SEE that, did you?!" line.
A lot of the fight scenes were improvised due to the shooting schedule being completely flipped around.note The original plan was to shoot all of the dialogue-heavy scenes with Juliá first, so as to allow the stunt team time to choreograph all the action scenes. When Juliá showed up on set looking very pale and underweight as a result of recent surgery, the director decided to instead shoot the action scenes first to give him time to regain weight.
Initially, writer-director Steven E. de Souza only wanted to feature seven fighters from the game, arguing that having too many characters would make for a messy and disjointed story. Capcom initially agreed to this, but eventually began pressing him to include additional characters in order to help promote the brand. By the end, the script included nearly the entire cast of Super Street Fighter II, with only Fei Long being excluded. Having 15 fighters from the game not only unnecessarily divided the screentime, but also necessitated making odd changes to the characters in order to fit them into the story, such as Dhalsim becoming a Shadaloo scientist or E. Honda and Balrog being part of a news team with Chun-Li.
Due to the script having to be rewritten multiple times to accommodate the changes Capcom had dictated, the casting process was very rushed, with key roles like Ryu and Ken not being cast until just two weeks before filming was to begin. Additionally, Capcom pushed for Japanese actor Kenya Sawada to play Ryu, even though his English wasn't very good. De Souza wanted an actor with more comedic chops and a better grasp of the English language, so it was decided that the film would introduce a new character for Sawada to play, named Captain Sawada. This meant there was now yet another character who had to be written into the movie, and Sawada's poor English ultimately resulted in the character being dubbed. Things were so down to the wire that de Souza found Kylie Minogue, Cammy's actress, while reading a magazine during his flight to Thailand to begin production on the movie.
Well-known actor Raúl Juliá was hired to play Bison, the film's lead villain, but when he arrived in Thailand, he was visibly frail and emaciated. It turned out that he had recently undergone surgery to combat stomach cancer, and the crew had not yet been informed of his condition. It was decided that Juliá needed time to regain weight, so the filming schedule was hastily rearranged to have fight scenes, which didn't feature Bison, bumped forward.
The rescheduling angered Charlie Picerni, a veteran stunt coordinator, who had previously worked on big films like Die Hard. He had taken the job on the condition that he be given enough time to properly plan everything, as capturing the high-flying martial arts moves of the game required extensive wirework and staging, as well as ample rehearsal time. With the schedule flipped, a lot of the fight scenes had to be improvised, sometimes moments before filming was about to begin. Additionally, many of the actors didn't have actual martial arts experience, which only exacerbated things.
At the time, Jean-Claude Van Damme was still a major star, and brought a massive ego to the set. He was also addicted to cocaine at the time, and was reeling from a very bitter divorce. Because of this, he was frequently late to the set, and sometimes didn't show up at all, meaning de Souza and the others would have to make stuff up on the spot to stall for time. Van Damme's thick Belgian accent also caused problems when it came to delivering his lines, a situation that was compounded by the star's refusal to actually rehearse his dialogue.
While the jungles of Thailand made for some beautiful exterior shots, the soundstage the movie had rented was rundown and full of holes, making it unsuitable for filming. A series of minor catastrophes befell the production: a crew member required medical attention for skin irritation caused by contact with the water of the Chao Phraya River; the line producer suffered a heart attack and never returned to the production; another producer, the one in charge of the film's completion bond, unaccustomed to driving on the alternate side of the road, turned into oncoming traffic and collided with a bus, sustaining serious injuries; one of the actors was arrested by Australian customs for steroid possession; and the local generator had a burnout. Many of the actors also lost weight due to being unfamiliar with the local cuisine, as well as the extremely humid temperature. Some of the young male actors had also let their salaries go to their heads, and had begun frequenting Thai massage parlors in order to receive sexual favors. Due to a threat of a coup, the military closed all roads, so the cast and crew had to be transported by high-speed boats and often arrived on set soaking wet. By the end of the Thailand shoot, the movie was 15 days behind schedule.
Though the movie was behind schedule, Capcom was adamant that the movie still be ready by its coveted December release date. The film had also struck a partnership with Hasbro, who needed the movie to be released on time so they could have the toys ready for Black Friday. The tight schedule led to things being very rushed, and the second unit team having to shoot entire scenes by themselves. Tensions also began to flare between de Souza and Picerni, as Picerni didn't want to incorporate the game's more outlandish combat elements, like the trademark Ki Manipulations. Things eventually got so heated that Picerni threatened to leave the film. By the time filming finished in Australia, 20 pages of the script still needed to be filmed. At Capcom's request, de Souza also had to reshoot some of Picerni's fight scenes in Vancouver to make them look more like the fights in the game, complete with the fireballs and other special moves.
During the editing process, the film received an R-rating, which de Souza believes came from a then-recent school shooting that had made people sensitive to violence in children's movies. This resulted in many of the fight scenes being heavily trimmed down and reedited, which sometimes messed up the flow and even caused continuity issues. Despite Capcom's insistence, many of the special moves also ended up being cut due to the level of violence or there simply not being enough time to create the necessary special effects.
Though Street Fighter was a modest success, grossing nearly $100,000,000 on a $35 million budget, it was not the big hit the studio was hoping for, and was absolutely savaged by critics. De Souza never directed another theatrical film, and the careers of many of the actors involved stalled out as well.
According to Alan Noon, the chaos even affected the the video game adaptation, as developers from Incredible Technologies and a Capcom representative took a trip to the filmset to digitize the actors and ran into various issues; Raul Julia's deteriorating health meant that his stunt double (Darko Tuscan) had to fill in, Van Damme only did 4 of his contracted 8 hours of capture work, Ming-Na Wen put off her motion capture session until the last second, and Gregg Rainwater left the set before any of his motion capture could be done, preventing T. Hawk from being in the game. The capture sessions took much longer than anticipated, which left the developers little time to create the gameplay and contributed to its many issues.
The movie was originally only going to feature just seven characters from the game, as the director argued that including the entire cast would make for a messy, disjointed story. Capcom initially agreed, but later persuaded the director to include nearly the entire roster of Super Street Fighter II.
The amphibious attack on Bison's compound, filmed on location in Thailand, was originally supposed to be an air assault. The Thai government wouldn't allow the use of its airspace for the large number of aircraft the scene would require (and because of the instability nearby in Myanmar), so the producers changed the final battle to a boat assault instead. This is referenced in the movie through Guile's line, "An attack from the air is impossible."
The producers originally wanted Fabio to play Vega.
Joan Chen was originally supposed to play Chun Li, but Ming-Na Wen ended up getting the part.
Word of God: De Souza stated that at least some of the movie's camp and silliness was intentional, saying "People say it's so dimwitted it’s funny, but we knew it was funny. How can you see that movie and think it's funny by accident?"
With Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, which came out a year prior in Japan but saw a U.S. release around the same time as the cartoon series. As a result, many fans have compared and contrasted famous moments from the series in both versions. Most notably, the epic Ryu vs. Sagat fight that starts The Animated Movie is far less dramatic and more abrupt in the series, with Ryu merely giving a quick uppercut to Sagat that somehow leaves a scar but doesn't shed any blood.
With the anime series Street Fighter II V. Riding the coattails of the success of The Animated Movie, Street Fighter II V is a non-canon series like its American counterpart: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Fei-Long are all teenagers, Sagat is in prison, Chun-Li's father, Dorai, is a main, prominent character, and E. Honda, Dee Jay, and T. Hawk are nowhere to be seen.
Follow the Leader: The premise resembles G.I. Joe more than it does Street Fighter. Not coincidentally, many of the show's production staff (such as Will Meugniot, Jim Graziano, Roger Slifer, and Douglas Booth) worked on G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
Meme Acknowledgment: The Discotek re-release has an amusing back cover, with screenshots of Bison saying "YES! YES!", the infamous shrinking Dee Jay, and Guile shouting "BISON!" while flames shoot up behind him. You can tell the Discotek crew knew about the show's meme-filled nature and took advantage of it.
The Other Darrin: In "Strange Bedfellows" and "The World's Greatest Warrior", Akuma was voiced by David Kaye. However, in the former, Dale Wilson provided his voice in the scene where Guile and Bison are in his cave.
Role Reprise: The Colombian Spanish dub shares the same voice cast with the dub of Street Fighter II V, due to the fact both series were sold to Latin American broadcasters as a part of the same package and were broadcasted one after the end of the another.
Screwed by the Network: Per Will Meguniot, "The cartoons were performing pretty well for USA, with Street Fighter actually pulling in better numbers than Superman on The WB. But, management noticed that the audience flow to the following live action shows and wrestling was pretty much non-existent, and decided it might be better to sacrifice the kid audience to get better viewer continuity for the advertisers. They made a classic error of sacrificing an audience they had for the audience they wanted — and never got."
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