Although he appeared potentially defeated for good in the past game, M. Bison is making a comeback in Street Fighter 6 Season 2 alongside Elena plus SNK’s Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui.
It’s not too surprising to see the dictator revived for like fourth or fifth time by this point, but what is more unexpected is Capcom actually referencing Raul Julia’s iconic performance as M. Bison from the original Street Fighter film.
At the very start of Bison’s new gameplay trailer, we see the amnesiac villain riding on a horse from up high as seemingly part of his introduction in World Tour before leaping down and confronting the player avatar.
The horse also appears again as what looks to be part of his pre-fight intro and victory animation.
After looking through all of Bison’s art and appearances in past games that we could find, we couldn’t find anything with the dictator and a horse.
But you know where Bison did ride a horse? The 1994 film.
Specifically, there’s a famous portrait in the background of scenes like the “It was Tuesday” one painted of Julia atop a black horse (based on Napoleon Crossing the Alps).
Though Bison himself doesn’t strike the same pose in SF6, his horse rears up in a very similar way to the portrait.
Click images for larger versions
The original Street Fighter movie was extremely campy, even at the time, but Raul Julia pretty much took control of any scene he was in with a bunch of memorable scenes and lines that are still quoted frequently 30 years later in what would be his last acting performance.
Capcom doesn’t typically make many references to the Street Fighter films in the games themselves, but doing so for Julia’s Bison is definitely the best way to do it.
There is a new Street Fighter movie in production, so hopefully that can end up better off than the last attempt with the Legend of Chun-Li.
Were there any other references in the trailer that we missed and do you think the horse is a callback to the film? Let us know in the comments.