Callina Liang has emerged as certainly one of movie’s most promising abilities, and her casting as Chun-Li in Legendary’s upcoming Road Fighter live-action adaptation marks a major milestone in her profession. The Canadian actress, who made her breakthrough by critically acclaimed work with director Steven Soderbergh, brings a novel mixture of performing capacity and martial arts coaching to the long-lasting preventing sport character.
Who Is Callina Liang?
Liang was born in Vancouver and spent her early life throughout a number of continents, rising up in Beijing, Sydney, and Singapore earlier than establishing herself in London. Whereas attending faculty in Singapore, she initially pursued teachers on a path towards drugs, however a turning level got here when she found her ardour for performing.
Liang studied Performance at Lasalle School of the Arts and constructed her early profile as a TikTok content material creator throughout her teenage years. Her transition from social media presence to skilled performing started along with her tv debut within the ITVX teen drama Inform Me All the things in 2022, the place she performed Mei within the first sequence which offered her along with her first style of motion work, permitting her to carry out stunts.
The actor’s movie profession accelerated in 2024 with two vital releases. She starred in J.C. Lee’s Unhealthy Genius, a Thai manufacturing, the place she performed Lynn, a scholar who orchestrates an underground dishonest operation. That very same 12 months, she gained broader recognition by Steven Soderbergh’s psychological horror thriller Presence, which premiered on the Sundance Movie Pageant earlier than its theatrical launch by Neon in January 2025. Within the movie, Liang performed Chloe Payne, a troubled teenager dwelling in a haunted suburban residence, reverse Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, and Julia Fox.
Martial Arts Expertise
Liang’s martial arts coaching varieties an important basis for her Chun-Li casting. She has skilled for years in a number of disciplines, particularly Wushu and Silat, giving her reputable martial arts credibility. Her eagerness to carry out her personal stunts works properly with the bodily calls for of bringing a online game fighter to the display screen. The actor speaks English and Mandarin Chinese language fluently.
Chun-Li
Chun-Li stands as some of the vital characters in gaming historical past. She grew to become the primary feminine playable character in a preventing sport to realize mainstream recognition when she debuted in Road Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991. The character was intentionally designed with an exceptionally robust physique to compete visually with the roster of highly effective male fighters within the unique sport, as builders sought to beat the perceived imbalance of getting the only real feminine character amongst predominantly male combatants.
Within the Street Fighter narrative, Chun-Li functions as a martial artist and Interpol officer driven by a personal vendetta. Her father, Dorai, known as “legendary legs” for his mastery of kicking techniques, was an officer in the Hong Kong Police Department who trained her initially in Tai Chi before teaching her Hong Quan, a martial arts style emphasizing leg assaults.
After her father’s disappearance by the hands of M. Bison, the villain main the legal group Shadaloo, Chun-Li devoted herself to martial coaching and investigation. Her preventing fashion finally integrated blends of Taekwondo and Capoeira alongside her Chinese language martial arts basis, creating a particular method to fight.
Street Fighter Movie 2026
The upcoming Street Fighter film represents a major adaptation effort from Legendary Pictures in partnership with Capcom, scheduled for release on October 16, 2026. The film will be distributed by Paramount Pictures and marks the first project in a three-year alliance between the filmmaker and the studio. The narrative is set in 1993, positioning it around the era when Street Fighter II dominated arcade gaming. Director Kitao Sakurai, known for the comedy Bad Trip, will helm the project.
The film assembled an expansive cast featuring British martial artist Andrew Koji as Ryu, Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, Roman Reigns as Akuma, Jason Momoa as Blanka, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Orville Peck as Vega, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, 50 Cent as Balrog, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, and Olivier Richters as Zangief, among other roles. Principal photography began in August 2025 and wrapped in November 2025. Despite the extensive casting announcements, Legendary and the production team have kept plot specifics confidential, leaving audiences to anticipate how Chun-Li’s core character elements will translate to live-action cinema.
Liang’s selection for this role capitalizes on her legitimate martial arts training for a part designed for action sequences. The combination of her performance experience, language capabilities, and combat training positions her to honor the character’s legacy while introducing Chun-Li to a new generation of audiences.
