'Street Fighter' Director Explains Why Sagat Doesn't Appear & What Else Didn't Make the Cut

The new live-action Street Fighter movie was praised after its full roster was confirmed, largely because its ensemble looked like they were lifted straight out of the video games. The expansive lineup is also a tribute to the franchise, with characters pulled from Fighting Street, Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. However, the inclusion of niche or deep-cut characters Cammy, Dan, Juli, Joe, and El Fuerte only made Sagat’s glaring omission more frustrating. Director Kitao Sakurai has now revealed why they deliberately excluded him.

Sagat was a tournament boss in Street Fighter II, the second-to-last opponent players faced before facing M. Bison. Sagat’s backstory is also tied to Dan Hibiki’s, whose father, Go Hibiki, was accidentally killed by Sagat before the events of Fighting Street. Ryu also gave him his massive chest scar in that game, and they have become primary arch-rivals since. Integral to the franchise’s foundational lore, Sagat’s villain and redemption arc arguably surpassed those of the other characters. Speaking with MovieWeb, Sakurai said they have bigger plans for him in a follow-up film.

“Sagat is one of the most iconic characters of the game, and so it wasn’t an oversight. We intentionally were like, ‘We need room for the story to grow,’ and Sagat is one of those characters that you don’t want him to be a throwaway. You know, you want to be like, ‘Oh, Sagat’s in town,’ kind of thing. So that was the rationale for then.”

The movie’s mid-credit scene hints that he will be a key villain in a potential sequel. This reveal took creative liberties with the source material, as Sagat was supposed to be an established boss in the World Warrior tournament rather than a future recruit. The deviation drew criticism, with many questioning the decision to exclude Sagat from the main roster while also featuring Joe, a much lesser-known character from Fighting Street.

Sakurai said he relished the discourse, which, for better or worse, proves the franchise’s following is heavily invested. “I kind of enjoy the fact that there’s so much chatter and talk of like, ‘where’s Sagat, where’s Sagat, they f—- up, they f—- up,'” he quipped. “I kind of like the fact that there’s going to be this sort of heated discussion around [it].”

Street Fighter featured few on-screen matches despite teasing a high-stakes, multi-bracket tournament in the trailers. Sakurai said he also wanted to pair characters in dream match-ups, but decided against that due to time constraints. “You only have a certain amount of shooting days and screen time, and you have to focus on what’s important and the heart of the story. For me, it was Ken and Ryu,” he explained.

He also confirmed cutting out a scene that proved too dark for a campy, PG-13 film. “We had this long, elaborate speech that M. Bison gave about how he was in the circus as a child and burned down a railway car full of his abusers. We went way deep on this stuff, and they were happy that we cut that out of the movie,” he said.

Critics and audiences are heavily divided on Street Fighter on Rotten Tomatoes, panning it for its tone and story while also hailing its style and faithful homage to the source material. Sakurai evidently left loose threads that could only be tied into a sequel, but that depends on whether the film turns a profit — it’s currently struggling on that front with a disappointing debut at the box office.