Casting Sagat For Street Fighter 2 - 4 Perfect Actors

Published Oct 16, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT

Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.
 

Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Street Fighter.

Paramount’s wild Street Fighter reboot is here, bringing some of the Capcom franchise’s most iconic characters to the screen in live-action for the first time since 1994’s cult adaptation. Director Kitao Sakurai delivers an incredibly fun, hyper-self-aware actioner that understands the brief, and while critics weren’t bowled over, fans have, predictably, pushed its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes above 80%.

The movie features David Dastmalchian as M Bison, along with Roman Reigns as supernatural villain Akuma, and Bison’s nefarious underlings Vega (Orville Peck), Balrog (50 Cent), Cammy (Mel Jarnson), and Juli (Rayna Vallandingham), but his most famous right-hand man is missing for most of the movie: Sagat.

The giant Muay Thai fighter does appear in flashback as Ryu defeats him in the first World Warrior tournament final (inflicting his chest scar in the process), but he’s not brought across to live-action. But Sagat will appear in Street Fighter 2, if it happens, because Street Fighter’s ending includes a stinger setting up his return. The animated Street Fighter post-credits scene sees Sagat beating up a palm tree, before M Bison, Cammy, and Vega appear to presumably recruit him. That suggests we’ll see Bison’s personal bodyguard on a quest for revenge against Ryu.

The issue with casting Sagat in live-action is that it’s more than likely that Street Fighter 2 will change his race from Thai in the games, in order to find an actor that more closely matches the character’s physical profile. Street Fighter does race-swap Dan Hibiki (Andrew Schulz), Cammy (Jarnson is half-Thai), Juli (Rayna Vallandingham, who is half-Punjabi Indian), and Akuma (Roman Reigns), but Sagat’s race is so tied to his fighting style it may be more divisive. That said, unless they find an incredible Thai actor who is off the radar right now, the best candidates right now would require the same approach.

4 Alex 'Poatan' Pereira

He may not be quite as tall as the actual Sagat, but there aren’t many actors or MMA stars who are above 7 feet tall, and Alex Pereira has the fighting skills necessary to convincingly handle that side of the role. There would likely be questions over whether he’d be able to handle the required acting workload, given the spotty track record real sportsmen have in acting, but there’s always the possibility of the sequel casting Sagat as a strong, silent type who carries a threat with his physicality. He also now has an acting credit to his name, thanks to his appearance as villain The Butcher in 2026’s brutal action sci-fi Onslaught, which was a strong start, if not entirely the same sort of role.

3 Martyn Ford

There are probably only three or four actors currently working who come close to Sagat’s actual height: Alan Ritchson isn’t the right profile (I’d prefer him as Charlie Nash); Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson may be too large; and Olivier Richters already plays Zangief, so that just leaves Mortal Kombat 2’s Martyn Ford. A hulking bruiser of an actor, he has the right physicality and has already played one iconic fighting game villain in Shao Kahn. He has more acting experience than Pereira, and less than the other two candidates, but he definitely has the most imposing presence.

2 Dwayne Johnson

When the question of Sagat’s casting came up, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s name was thrown about immediately, both by backers and detractors. He’s got combat experience, is a famous bald man (not that that’s a massive casting concern), and he showed in Black Adam that he can do dark charisma very well. He does now have more baggage than he would have several years ago, but there’s no question that he’d bring some energy to the iconic Street Fighter villain. And he doesn’t look unlike Sagat, either.

1 Dave Bautista

Johnson is a casting fan favorite for Sagat, but Dave Bautista might be even more of a frontrunner. The Rock’s fellow former WWE star also has combat experience, and surpasses Johnson because of his short-lived but undefeated MMA stint. He has also extensively trained in Muay Thai, Sagat’s chosen fighting discipline, as well as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kali, and traditional boxing. He’s arguably also accepted as a better actor than Johnson, having broadened his on-screen work beyond blockbusters and action projects. He’s also got a track record playing villains, including Bond villain Mr Hinx, and has the right blend of charisma and physical presence to pull Sagat off. He's not quite tall enough at 6 foot 4, but then Robbie Coltrane wasn't a real half-giant in Harry Potter, so there are practical ways around these things.

Street Fighter is in theaters worldwide now.

Street Fighter