Noah Centineo Leads Star-Studded Street Fighter Premiere at TCL Chinese Theatre

Noah Centineo has played a lot of things in his career — Netflix’s favorite boyfriend, a CIA rookie in over his head, a DC superhero with growing pains. On Monday night in Hollywood, he added one more to the list: bona fide action star. Or at least, the guy standing on the red carpet at the premiere of his own big-budget action movie, which is close enough for the photos.

The 30-year-old actor led the cast of Street Fighter down the red carpet at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on October 12, just days ahead of the film’s theatrical release. And he didn’t exactly show up alone. The guest list read like someone threw a fighting-game roster, a WWE locker room, and a rap-rock festival into a blender — and honestly, for this movie, that feels about right.

A red carpet stacked with fighters

Andrew Koji, who plays Ryu opposite Centineo’s Ken Masters, was there, along with Callina Liang — the film’s Chun-Li. Jason Momoa turned up, because of course he did; a movie called Street Fighter without a guy built like Momoa would feel incomplete. 50 Cent made an appearance. So did Eric André, which raises more questions than it answers, and masked country star Orville Peck, who remains one of the most intriguing casting swings of the year.

The wrestling world showed up in force, too. Joe Anoa’i — better known to the planet as Roman Reigns — walked the carpet with his wife Galina Becker, while Cody Rhodes arrived with wife Brandi. David Dastmalchian, one of Hollywood’s great “wait, I know that guy” character actors, brought his wife Evelyn Leigh. The lineup was rounded out by Olivier Richters, Mel Jarnson, and Rayna Vallandingham.

It was, by any measure, a lot of star power for a Monday night. But then, this isn’t just any Monday-night premiere. This is the premiere of a movie a lot of people have been waiting for — and, let’s be honest, bracing for.

What the movie is actually about

Here’s the setup, straight from the studio: it’s 1993, and estranged fighters Ryu (Koji) and Ken Masters (Centineo) are dragged back into the fight game when the mysterious Chun-Li (Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament. What starts as a tournament story turns into something bigger — a conspiracy that forces the two old friends to face each other, their pasts, and a threat that could end the whole game. And if they don’t win? Game over. Literally.

The film is directed by Kitao Sakurai, the filmmaker behind the hidden-camera chaos of Bad Trip, and it’s a joint effort from Legendary and Paramount. It hits theaters on October 16 — this Friday. Which means that by the time most people read this, the first reviews will already be out and the takes will already be flying.

From Peter Kavinsky to Ken Masters

Take a second to appreciate how far Noah Centineo has come. Eight years ago, he was the internet’s boyfriend — Peter Kavinsky, the letter-jacket-wearing charmer of Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, the role that turned him into a teen-romance icon practically overnight. The Perfect Date cemented the image. He could have stayed in that lane forever, and honestly, plenty of actors would have. It’s a comfortable lane. The checks clear.

He didn’t. He went the other way — into spandex and explosions. Black Adam put him in a DC costume as Atom Smasher in 2022, and Netflix’s The Recruit gave him two seasons of running, shooting, and looking stressed in a suit as CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks. Street Fighter is the next logical step: a full-on action lead in a franchise with genuine global name recognition. If it works, Centineo graduates from “that guy from the Netflix movies” to a real action draw. That’s a big if. But the ambition is hard to argue with, and Hollywood rewards ambition — especially when it comes with a six-pack and a work ethic.

There’s also something kind of perfect about the casting. Ken Masters, in the games, is the flashy American fighter — cocky, charismatic, the guy who shows up and makes everything a little louder. That’s not a million miles from the energy Centineo has been selling since 2018. Ryu is the quiet, disciplined one; Ken is the one with the grin. Casting the former teen-heartthrob as the grin is just good sense.

The long, bumpy road to a good Street Fighter movie

Here’s the thing about making a Street Fighter movie: the bar is on the floor, and that’s actually good news for this one.

The 1994 original — the Jean-Claude Van Damme one, with the late, great Raul Julia chewing every piece of scenery in sight as M. Bison — is a beloved mess. Van Damme played Guile, an American special-forces colonel, because sure, why not. The plot had almost nothing to do with the games. And yet it made money and became a cult classic precisely because it’s so gloriously unhinged. People don’t love it in spite of the chaos; they love it because of the chaos. Then came 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, starring Kristin Kreuk, which — let’s just say it exists, and leave it there.

So the franchise has never had a genuinely good movie. But it also has one of the most beloved casts of characters in gaming history. Ryu and Ken — the earnest Japanese karateka and his flashy American best friend and rival — are icons. Chun-Li was one of the first playable female fighters in any major game and remains a legend three decades later. The material is there. It has always been there. Someone just has to not fumble it, which turns out to be harder than it sounds.

Why this one might actually work

There are reasons for cautious optimism, and they go beyond the cast list. The 1993 setting is a genuinely smart move — it plants the story right in the era when Street Fighter II ruled every arcade on the planet, which gives the whole thing a built-in nostalgia engine without requiring the audience to know a shred of lore. It also neatly sidesteps the franchise’s weirdest problem: its timeline. The games’ continuity is a glorious disaster. By planting the flag in the arcade era, the movie gets to be a period piece and an origin story at the same time. Clever.

Then there’s Sakurai. Coming from comedy — Bad Trip is essentially an hour and a half of glorious bad decisions — rather than straight action could be a feature, not a bug. The best video game movies of the last few years have all understood the same thing: these movies need to be fun first and serious second. Look at the track record. Sonic the Hedgehog turned a fast blue rodent into a multi-film franchise. The Super Mario Bros. Movie made over a billion dollars by being exactly as joyful as the games. Even A Minecraft Movie found its audience by leaning into the silliness. The genre has quietly become one of Hollywood’s most reliable bets, mostly by remembering that joy is the point.

And the cast is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Koji is a legit martial artist and screen fighter — anyone who watched him tear through Warrior knows he can carry a fight scene without breaking a sweat. Centineo has spent the last few years proving he can handle the physical stuff. Momoa brings sheer presence; you don’t cast Jason Momoa to blend in. And the wrestling contingent — Reigns, Rhodes — suggests the filmmakers know exactly what kind of movie this is: big, loud, and physical. Nobody accidentally casts two WWE headliners in a quiet character drama.

The stakes are real

Let’s not pretend this is a sure thing, because video game movies have a long and storied history of face-planting. For every Sonic, there’s a cautionary tale. Street Fighter is one of the most recognizable brands on the planet — the games have sold tens of millions of copies across three decades — which means the built-in audience is enormous, but so are the expectations. Fans of these games are protective of Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li in a way that goes beyond normal fandom. Get Ryu wrong and the internet will let you know within the hour. Get him right, though, and that same internet will carry your movie for weeks.

The October release date is interesting, too. Mid-October is that sweet spot where summer blockbuster season is over, awards season hasn’t fully swallowed the calendar, and audiences are hungry for something big and fun. It worked for plenty of action films before. There’s no obvious direct competition for the same crowd this weekend, which gives Street Fighter a clean runway — if the word of mouth holds.

But if it lands? Then Legendary and Paramount have the start of a franchise, which is the whole ballgame in 2026. Centineo gets his action-star coronation. Koji gets the mainstream breakout his Warrior fans have been demanding for years. And the rest of us get to watch Jason Momoa and 50 Cent in a movie about a fighting tournament, which is honestly enough on its own.

Monday night at the TCL Chinese Theatre was the first step — the handprints in the forecourt, the screaming fans on Hollywood Boulevard, the whole old-school premiere machine. Now comes the part that actually matters: Friday, October 16, when the movie meets its audience. Fingers crossed. Hadouken.

Source: Just Jared