The success of the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot shows that Joey Ansah and Christian Howard's Street Fighter: World Warrior project needs to be realized. The Mortal Kombat adaptation has seen a decidedly mixed reception, but it was popular enough to launch a new movie franchise. The groundwork has been set for the franchise's onscreen future, with actor Joe Taslim being game for a Sub-Zero centered prequel and Ludi Lin and Max Huang sharing their hopes for a Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks spin-off. Meanwhile, Ansah and Howard's unrealized series Street Fighter: World Warrior already has all the building blocks in place.
Beginning with the YouTube short Street Fighter: Legacy in 2010, Ansah and Howard returned to the franchise with 2014's Street Fighter: Assassins' Fist; the project was a web series written by the duo, with Ansah directing and playing Akuma and Howard playing Ken Masters. More akin in tone and style to a Kurosawa film than a typical video game movie adaptation, Assassin's Fist was an instant hit. It didn't take long for development to be announced on their real endgame, the TV series Street Fighter: World Warrior, and while Ansah and Howard produced the 2016 interquel Street Fighter: Resurrection as a tie-in to the-then releasing Street Fighter V, a lack of studio movement led to World Warrior falling through the cracks.
In an interview with Scott Adkins on his YouTube series The Art of Action, Ansah stated that his insistence on being World Warrior's showrunner was born out of his desire to maintain creative control on the series in order to avoid a situation where it would "end up with Legend of Chun-Li again." Suicide Squad director David Ayer was also aboard to direct the pilot, but Ansah felt that it was beginning to be "steered away from what I want it to be and what I know will be a success." The studio that Ansah had signed up with ultimately failed to get World Warrior rolling before the rights relapsed to Capcom. Ansah further elaborated that while "the fight's not over," there is no currently active movement on World Warrior — but a look back on Assassin's Fist and comparing it to the return of Mortal Kombat shows why it should be finally be revived.
In the expansive history of bad video game movies, Street Fighter has been at both the bottom and the top of the barrel. 1994's Street Fighter and 2009 Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li were both disasters on every level. Meanwhile, Assassin's Fist not only did the Street Fighter games justice, but brought more depth, drama, and emotional resonance than almost any other video game adaptation ever made. It also had some of the best fight scenes ever showcased in a video game film, with Ansah, Howard, and Mike Moh as Ryu needing hardly any wire-fu or CGI assistance in bringing the fighting moves of Street Fighter to life (outside of Hadoukens and Shoryukens reaching thirty feet in height, of course.)
The work of Ansah, Howard, and Moh made Assassin's Fist into not just a great video game movie, but a surprisingly impactful and humanized martial arts drama that showed the true storytelling potential of Street Fighter as a cinematic property. Just like how Mortal Kombat 2021 fixed mistakes of the original '90s movie, Street Fighter: World Warrior has the potential to essentially do the same. Everything is already laid out in Ansah's 100-page treatment to astonish viewers, following how exceptional Assassin's Fist was among video game movies. As a bonus, Ansah has also previouly listed Scott Adkins as his first choice for Guile, and THAT would be some excellent casting!
NEXT: Mortal Kombat 2021: How & Why Hanzo Became Scorpion
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