Rapper Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, has seemingly rubber-stamped a report that indicated he is in talks to play Balrog in the upcoming Street Fighter movie.
Nexus Point News first reported that Jackson was in talks to play Balrog, and soon after 50 Cent took to social media to promote the story.
“No Days off, Let’s work all roads lead to Shreveport 💣Boom💨” 50 Cent posted.
Balrog is Street Fighter’s famous boxer character (he was called M. Bison in the original Japanese version, but was switched in the western version due to concerns over similarities to Mike Tyson). Balrog was one of the four non-playable bosses in Street Fighter 2 alongside Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison, but became playable with the release of Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition. He’s been a mainstay in Street Fighter ever since.
Things are certainly ramping up for the Street Fighter movie. This week we learned that Legendary Pictures had gone for Callina Liang to portray Chun-Li. She’ll be joined by other previously reported on co-stars, including Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Jason Momoa, Roman Reigns, and Orville Peck. Additional plot details and information on who exactly will be playing some of the other Street Fighter icons have yet to be announced. 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. Legendary will be hoping this new Street Fighter movie carves out some box office success for itself after 1994’s live-action Street Fighter movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Colonel Guile went down as one of the worst video game adaptations ever made.
Photo by Johnny Louis/WireImage.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
