After Mortal Kombat & Street Fighter, It's Time For Another 1990s Franchise To Get A Movie Reboot
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Published Sep 8, 2026, 5:00 PM EDT
Nick Bythrow is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant. He has been writing for the site since September 2022. He graduated from Hampshire College in 2022, where he triple majored in Journalism, Communications, and Media Studies. When he's not writing about TV and movies for ScreenRant and his blog, Frayed Branches, Nick is penning speculative fiction and poetry on Amazon. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts.
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After Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter's big-screen returns, the time has come for another 1990s action franchise to get a movie reboot. The two franchises are some of the biggest fighting video game series of all time, each having a crucial presence in the genre. Mortal Kombat is an American-based video game series, originally published as an arcade game in 1992 before expanding into a larger franchise. Street Fighter, developed in Japan, was also originally made for the arcade in 1987, before it too expanded in scope.
Since then, the two have enjoyed a bigger onscreen presence through film adaptations, which began in the 1990s. While these films garnered mixed reviews and are now seen as cult classics today, 2026 is bringing the fighting games back into the spotlight on the big screen. Mortal Kombat II earned positive reactions from critics and fans alike, the sequel to 2021's remake scoring high marks for a video game film. The upcoming Street Fighter movie seeks to mimic that success, bringing another classic fighting franchise to the big screen.
While both franchises have earned some high marks for constantly staying in the spotlight, there is one other fighting video game franchise that deserves a reboot: Tekken. Another Japanese arcade fighting game franchise, the series received an American live-action movie adaptation in 2011, followed by a prequel in 2014. Both movies were critically panned, with Tekken creator Katsuhiro Harada criticizing the first film in particular. However, it seems like the time might be right for Hollywood to try again now that fighting game movies are becoming more popular.
Hollywood Has (Mostly) Figured Out How To Make Fighting Video Games Into Movies
Hollywood is starting to prove that it has some idea of how to make fighting video games into big-budget movies. This began with 2021's Mortal Kombat, which managed to capture the essence of the games with accurate fight sequences and a multitude of familiar faces. Of course, it wasn't completely perfect, with the film focusing on original character Cole Young instead of a protagonist from the video games. Mortal Kombat II improved on this by bringing Johnny Cage into the fold, making for a more game-focused film.
While Street Fighter hasn't been released as of writing, the movie looks promising, with a core focus on video game characters like Ryu and Chun-Li. There are a number of notable actors portraying Street Fighter's characters, too, from Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, to David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, to Jason Momoa as Blanka. The movie's potential emphasizes how Hollywood may have discovered the ingredients necessary to craft a strong fighting video game movie. The same could be applied to Tekken, especially with the genre earning the recognition it deserves.
If Mortal Kombat & Street Fighter Can Work, Tekken Should Too
It only makes sense that, if Hollywood can utilize the same elements that make Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter work, Tekken can get a faithful film adaptation within the current environment for fighting game movies. The faithfulness to the films coupled with a focus on the characters would help redeem the franchise's big-screen presence, while adding to the number of successful video game adaptations that have come out in recent years. It helps that the movies thus far have had major action lenses to their presentation, something that can strengthen a potential Tekken movie as well.
Although there are no plans for a Tekken movie at the moment, other fighting video game movies are a strong sign that one could work if approached in a similar way as the others. While Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter both have their own way of showcasing their video game worlds on the big screen, the follow fighting video game franchise could utilize what works and doesn't work for both adaptations to craft one that's just as good, if not even better.
TV Show(s) Tekken: Bloodline (2022)
First TV Show Tekken: Bloodline (2022)
Cast Masanori Shinohara, Taiten Kusunoki, Isshin Chiba, Lisle Wilkerson, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Vivian Lu, Seiko Yoshida, Hidenari Ugaki, Hochu Otsuka, Jamieson Price, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Todd Haberkorn, Maaya Sakamoto, Tomokazu Seki, Kaiji Tang, Mamiko Noto, Jeannie Tirado
Created by Seiichi Ishii
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