David Dastmalchian is set to play M. Bison in the upcoming live-action Street Fighter movie.
Deadline reports that Dastmalchian, who played Thomas Schiff in The Dark Knight, Kurt and Veb in the Ant-Man franchise, Abra Kadabra in the CW's The Flash, and Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad, has secured his biggest role to date, playing Street Fighter’s veteran dictator bad guy.
M. Bison was of course played by the late Raúl Juliá in the infamous 1994 Street Fighter film, which also starred Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel Guile and Kylie Minogue as Cammy.
Legendary declined to comment.
In Capcom's Street Fighter video games, M. Bison runs Shadaloo, the criminal organization behind most of the bad things that happen in the ongoing storyline. M. Bison himself is typically an ultra powerful final boss character who wields Psycho Power to destroy any who get in his way. He was rock hard in Street Fighter 2, although has calmed down a bit in the years since.
The Street Fighter movie cast is starting to take shape, with many of the key roles now announced. Rapper Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, is set to play boxer Balrog, Aquaman star Jason Momoa is Blanka, Noah Centineo is Ken, WWE superstar Roman Reigns is Akuma, and Andrew Koji is Ryu. Callina Liang is Chun-Li. Guile is yet to be cast (perhaps the hair is proving to be a sticking point). The movie itself is set for launch on March 20, 2026.
Hollywood’s pursuit of video game adaptations has seen enormous success, with the likes of A Minecraft Movie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, so it's no surprise to see Legendary take Street Fighter on. The hope is it outperforms the 1994 effort, which is considered by many to be among the worst video game films of all time.
Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
