Over the past decade, the Power Rangers franchise has crossed over with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Usage Yojimbo, Godzilla, and even the Justice League, and those team-ups have all been absolutely epic. That said, none of those went as far as the unexpected gem of a crossover between Power Rangers and the Street Fighter franchise that took place 7 years ago, and to say we want more of that crossover would be an understatement.
You might be familiar with the Power Rangers fighting game known as Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, launched in 2017, and it continues to add new characters to the game to this day. Legacy Wars surprised everyone when it revealed a crossover with Street Fighter, but the crossover wasn’t just relegated to the game, as it received a full short film titled Power Rangers Legacy Wars: Street Fighter Showdown that featured Ryu, Time Force Pink, the Phantom Ranger, Chun-Li, and more. The short film was pretty epic, and you can watch the full film below.
Play video
The Power Rangers Street Fighter Showdown Film Was Epic, And It Could Have Been An Entire Series
The short film coincided with the launch of the showdown crossover in Legacy Wars, and no one expected an entire short film with franchise stars to be part of the rollout. Bat in the Sun brought in Jason David Frank and Ciara Hanna to reprise their Ranger roles and then added Ryu and Chun-Li for the Street Fighter side, though it got even better.
That’s because part of the story was that Ninjor created a new Power Coin to help the Rangers take down M. Bison, who had crashed the Power Rangers universe and teamed up with Rita Repulsa to take over this dimension. Rita had also gifted Bison with a Power Rangers army of her own, but thankfully, the new Power Coin helps balance the scales a bit, and it’s Ryu who takes the coin.
That transforms him into a new Ryu Ranger form, which includes a mostly white and red costume with a gold shield, and this new powered-up Ryu teams up with Chun-Li, Tommy, and Gia to take on M. Bison in a thrilling throwdown. Then an even bigger battle between the two sides is teased at the end, though we don’t have a chance to see that battle ever actually happen.
The short film was a welcome surprise, and Hasbro would even release Lightning Collection figures to go with it, including Ryu’s form and Chun-Li’s powered-up form that we don’t get to see in the film. Hasbro released a Lightning Collection figure as part of the toyline, which was where they first revealed Chun-Li’s Ranger form.
With the way things end, you could have easily had more episodes of the series and some welcome battles with more characters from Mighty Morphin and Street Fighter, because who doesn’t want to see Squatt vs Vega or Ranger Chun-Li vs Blanka? The expansive rosters of these franchises could certainly handle multiple shows in a series, but right now, it seems as if this franchise crossover is done for the foreseeable future.
The good news is that Legacy Wars is still alive and well, and you can still watch the full short film in the video above.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
