Back in 2003, Jean-Claude Van Damme was working on a sequel to the original Street Fighter movie titled "Street Fighter II", for Universal. Several cast members had been hired to join him in the sequel, including his Universal Soldier co-star Dolph Lundgren in an unrevealed role, Australian actress Holly Valance would have replaced Kylie Minogue as Cammy White, and Damian Chapa would have re-praised his role as Ken Masters. Byron Mann was also reportedly in talks to return as Ryu Hoshi. However, after a few years of trying to get the sequel off the ground, the project never materialized and any plans for a sequel were scrapped in favor of this movie. In the sequel, it would have been revealed that Blanka and Dhalsim survived and the chemicals that made Dhalsim bald also gave him his stretching powers.
According to an on-line interview with MTV, Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally offered the chance of reprising his role as Guile for this film. He would've been the only original cast member from the original film to return, but Van Damme turned down the offer.
A potential sequel with Ryu and Ken was planned but was cancelled due of the poor box office performances of the film. But instead, Machinima signed on to make both the Street Fighter: Legacy short film, the Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist web-series, the Street Fighter: Ressurection mini-series, and even the cancelled Street Fighter: World Warrior. These were all stand-alone adaptations of Ryu and Ken which received positive reviews this time around.
Robin Shou, who plays Gen, is the only actor in the cast who has previously featured in other movies based on a video game: he played Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat (1995) and its sequel Mortal Kombat: A Aniquilação (1997), as well as having a cameo role in DOA: Vivo ou Morto (2006).
Both Taboo and Michael Clarke Duncan are fans of the Street Fighter games.