New Street Fighter movie trailer features Jason Momoa’s unique portrayal of Blanka.

Paramount Pictures and Legendary have just unveiled a fresh trailer for the upcoming Street Fighter movie, and it’s definitely intriguing. This teaser offers our first glimpse of Jason Momoa as Blanka, showcasing a darker, more menacing interpretation of the character.

In the trailer, Ryu (played by Andrew Koji) finds himself ensnared in a cage fight set up by M. Bison (David Dastmalchian). He’s forced to face off against Blanka, who appears as a wild, feral beast with a penchant for violence. In a chilling scene, Blanka drags a captive into his lair and unleashes his electric powers, zapping the victim with a striking visual reminiscent of Street Fighter 2’s cartoonish X-ray effect. The scene culminates with Blanka executing his infamous Blanka Ball attack.

As Ryu attempts to reason with Blanka, insisting he doesn’t want to fight, Momoa delivers a peculiar line: “Then you die. OK?” This line feels like an exaggerated take on the character’s voice from Street Fighter 6. The trailer suggests that director Kitao Sakurai is embracing a campy tone, which seems fitting given the series’ history. After all, it features a giant Russian grappler and a Tarzan-like character with bizarre lightning abilities, so a lighthearted approach makes sense.

In the lore of the original Street Fighter 2, Blanka was once a boy named Jimmy whose plane crashed in the Amazon rainforest, leading to his transformation after an encounter with electric eels. While earlier portrayals hinted at a more sinister side, recent iterations have leaned into a more playful persona. In Street Fighter 5 and 6, Blanka even sells plush toys of himself and tries to boost tourism in his village to support his mother.

At the very least, the Street Fighter movie promises to be an entertaining spectacle. It appears to faithfully recreate the characters’ iconic moves and is packed with nods to the franchise. Notably, just fourteen seconds into the Blanka trailer, there’s a cameo from well-known fighting game player and YouTuber Maximilian Dood, indicating that the filmmakers are well-versed in the source material. We’ll find out how all this translates to the big screen when the film premieres on October 16.