Actor and martial artist Joey Ansah took to Facebook on Wednesday to officially update fans of his hit 2014 live-action adaptation series, Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist.
“…Do not expect a follow up series anytime in the immediate to near future.” Ansah wrote on Facebook. “Horrible news I know, but all we can do is look forward. I still have a fantastic relationship with Capcom and the fight to do something with them in this space is not over!”
Ansah, and fellow cohort, series headliner Christian Howard created the project, borne from a three-minute proof of concept titled Street Fighter: Legacy, directed by Owen Trevor, and released online in 2010.
The three-minute short grew major attention in the years that followed, and proceeded onto Kickstarter to finance an independent series. The campaign drew subsequent backing from Capcom USA, Inc. and production company Assassin’s Fist Limited with the two joined by Jacqueline Quella and Mark Wooding.
Casting an ensemble of fitting talents led by Howard and actor and martial artist Mike Moh, production followed in 2013 with Machinima streaming the series for a limited time on YouTube a year later.
Filmgoers were also able to take to screenings of a feature length cut of the series wherever tickets were available. In North America, Giant Ape Media released the feature version on Blu-Ray in 2016 which also shares an extended version.
A sequel series, Street Fighter: World Warrior, was announced that year, and finalized in 2018 with Entertainment One (eOne) landing the rights to develop the show, with Ansah and his team proliferating the brand with miniseries spin-off, Street Fighter: Resurrection, for Verizon’s now-defunct go90 app, which cast actor Alain Moussi (Kickboxer Retaliation) in the central role of Charlie Nash.
As fans hoped, World Warrior would have followed the events of Assassin’s Fist, which saw the origin tale of Ryu (Mike Moh) and Ken (Christian Howard), and their remote upbringing by Ansatsuken master Gouken (Akira Koieyama). Assassin’s Fist also featured co-star/exec producer Togo Igawa, actress Hyunri, and actors Shogen, Gaku Space, Mark Killeen and Hal Yamanouchi.
Two years have passed since then as fans waited to see what the next move was, while for others, the unlikelihood of another installment became all too painfully, unceremoniously clear.
Ansah, whose latest credits partly include Mission Impossible: Fallout, Aladdin, and upcoming Netflix comic adaptation, The Old Guard, spoke extensively to Facebook fans about the production costs, prospects and usual idiosyncracies that come with the dealmaking process of filmmaking, adding that the streamlined story told in Assassin’s Fist “allowed us to create a high production value on a tight budget.”
Hinting at eOne’s acquisition, Ansah further states his team “partnered with one that we believed best understood the ‘vision’ and more importantly understood the creative process that made SFAF what it was.”
That was in Spring when The Mark Gordon Company’s own Mark Gordon was acting president and chief content officer of film and television for Entertainment One. In July of 2019, Gordon left his post at eOne, with the rights to the series elapsing and reverting back to Capcom in the months that followed.
By this time, Machinima, which was also home to Warner Digital series Mortal Kombat Legacy, had ceased operations a few months earlier after thirteen years of business, officially closing shop in February.
“…Creative execs come and go from a studio, so who you end up working with down the line calling the shots on your show’s development may well not be the person you originally pitched to and believed in.” said Ansah, who asserts his creative control would have lessened significantly in different hands.
“You are at the mercy of trying to work as best you can with all the players involved when things finally get moving. As the process developed it was clear that despite being an exec Prod. on the show, I wouldn’t be the lead writer or director of the show, and without being in creative control, I would not be able to guarantee an authentic continuation of the SF story in live-action that you have grown to love and support” Ansah writes.
You can read Ansah’s statement in full by clicking here.