As Street Fighter bounces between damn-good video game adaptation and damn-terrible movie, fans are left asking, “Wait, so there’s more coming, right?” The movie ends on a bit of a cliffhanger with a mid-credits scene that seems to suggest the writers certainly hope so. And while there hasn’t been a confirmed greenlight for a sequel yet—only confirmation that it’s currently being written—the actor playing Zangief has decided to Russian Suplex the doubts and potentially answer the question himself.
In the comments section of a Top Hat Gaming Man YouTube video about how Street Fighter “ruined Zangief,” Zangief actor Olivier Richters essentially said worry not, the Red Cyclone will get his time to shine, a lot more time in fact.
Zangief here. When they asked me to play Zangief it was all very clear. There was one goal: show a glympse of Zangief and his power, so we all want more. All actors, including me signed for 3 movies. If a sequel is made, Zangief will shine was the promise. Apart from that, you can’t expect from a 2 hour movie with so many characters for everyone to shine in the first part. But anyways, thanks for wanting to see more of Zangief :)!
While there’s a big gap between signing up to do a project and it actually getting made, his comment suggests that there might be at least two more rounds to fight and that all of the world warriors have signed up to return. I also liked that Richters took the time to soft-refute the idea that Street Fighter “ruined” his character. The movie didn’t actually ruin him; the script just didn’t give him, or most other characters not named Ryu or Ken, a whole lot to do. And you know what, that’s okay. We could very much be in a Mortal Kombat reboot situation in which the first movie introduces characters and establishes the world while the second movie is the one where everybody gets to go apeshit and have fun.