Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson has unveiled a first look at his character in Paramount Pictures' upcoming Street Fighter movie – and if we didn't already know he was playing Balrog, that haircut would've been considered a major spoiler.
The rapper-turned-actor's involvement in the adaptation, which takes inspiration from Capcom's hugely popular video game series, was confirmed back in June. Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, Orville Peck, Roman Reigns, David Dastmalchian, and Jason Momoa's castings were announced around the same time.
"Work hard when they hardly working, and they will be surprised at the outcome," 50 Cent wrote alongside the black-and-white training video, which confirms his Balrog will be a boxer like he is in Street Fighter II. "I hit a 🥷🏾he gonna see a white light and hear Jesus say, 'Come to me, child.' LOL."
Directed by Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip), the film was written by Dalan Musson, whose credits include Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Captain America: Brave New World, and kicked off filming back in mid-August. It will also star Andrew Koji, Cody Rhodes, Rayna Vallandingham, Andrew Schulz, Kyle Mooney, Vidyut Jammwal, Alexander Volkanovski, Olivier Richters, Hirooki Goto, Mel Jarnson, and Eric André.
Sakurai's new take won't be the first time fans have seen Ryu and co. brought to life. Back in 1994, Jean-Claude Van Damme played Guile in a feature-length outing, opposite Kylie Minogue's Cammy, and Ming-Na Wen's Chun-Li. In 2009, 20th Century Fox unveiled spin-off Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, with Smallville's Kristin Kreuk in the lead role. Both were received poorly by critics, with the latest only making $50 million at the worldwide box office.
Street Fighter is set to release on October 16, 2026. For more, check out our ranked list of the best video game movies of all time.
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