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The upcoming live-action Street Fighter movie’s fights were developed around the games’ recognizable moves and distinct character styles, according to the people who made them. Actor Noah Centineo says stunt coordinator John Valera researched the characters and the fighting styles associated with their appearances in the games. Director Kitao Sakurai describes a multi-stage storyboarding process intended to give each fight its own visual identity and story purpose.
What “every character” means in the stunt research account
Centineo, who plays Ken, told GamesRadar+ that Valera researched the characters and the specific fighting styles associated with their fights. Centineo described the wider game franchise as having “almost 150 characters”; that remark refers to the game roster, not the number of characters in the film. It is an actor’s account of the coordinator’s work, rather than an independently audited production record.
The point of the research, as Centineo described it, was to carry signature moves and styles into the movie rather than make every fighter look interchangeable. The production account supports that as a design aim; it does not establish how faithfully the finished film achieves it.
How the fights were designed
Director Kitao Sakurai says he and Valera shaped the action together through several stages of storyboarding. Sakurai’s criterion was that each fight should have a different visual concept and a reason to exist in the story, not simply reproduce a game move. He described the process as translating selected techniques and visual references from the games into practical screen action.
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In a Cineplay interview, Sakurai singled out E. Honda’s steam-room sequence as the first major fight they shot and his personal favorite. He connected its visual approach to the spirit of the game and to the characters’ emotional state. In a separate interview with Esquire Philippines, he also described phased storyboarding and the use of specific game moves and visual references.
How actors prepared to embody the moves
Chun-Li actor Callina Liang said she recorded Chun-Li’s moves from Street Fighter gameplay in slow motion so she could study them. GamesRadar reported that Liang described training two hours a day in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and wushu, and characterized Chun-Li as a kick-focused fighter. These details are her reported account of preparation, not independently verified training records.
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In an Omelete interview, Liang said the film drew on a range of fighting styles and retained character-specific kicks and moves. She also mentioned elements associated with particular fighters, including Chun-Li’s nunchucks and Vega’s claws. Her gameplay study illustrates one way the team could use the games as movement references alongside stunt and choreography work.
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Valera told The Game that the team brought together martial artists with backgrounds ranging from wushu to boxing. For Chun-Li’s spinning bird kick, a Cirque du Soleil performer helped with harnesses and rigs to sustain the airborne movement.
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Valera also described close work with the special-effects and visual-effects departments. Explosions and breakaways were safety-tested; visual effects were used when an action could not be performed safely or practically by a person. The method reflects the central adaptation challenge: preserve a move’s recognizable character while building a version that performers and the production can execute safely.
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