WMG / Street Fighter V

Obligatory roster guesses

• Chun-Li, Ken, and Akuma
  • Chun-Li's not exactly a guess considering she was right there from day one. Ken would be a strong possibility, though.
  • Confirmed for Ken! His gameplay trailer was released yesterday (July 9), and now he's among the official roster.
  • Akuma now confirmed as well.
• Dan and Sean: Considering the latter's opinion of the former, it'd be interesting to see what would happen if the two meet. Also, in the case of Dan, assuming that this game takes place after both IV and III, he could've differentiated himself further from being a Shotoclone.
  • Dan's confirmed for Season 5 DLC.
• Poison and Hugo
  • Poison's confirmed for Season 4 DLC.
• R. Mika: Because Ono and Capcom can only troll fans for so long...
  • Confirmed.
• Q: Maybe we'll finally find out what the hell he is.
• Haggar: We've already got plenty of Final Fight characters as part of the roster in previous games, and his appearance in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 proved that he's not just a Zangief-clone. Plus, like the Dan-and-Sean guess above, if Hugo makes it in as well, it would make for an interesting rivalry.
• Blanka: He's Ono's favorite character, bananas have been teased, this is practically a given.
  • Confirmed for Season 3.
• Oro: Again, this game takes place after IV and III, and elements of III will be incorporated. Also, Oro is one of only three Street Fighter characters that were NOT part of IV with significant figurines or statue figures created in the years since SFV would've likely existed at least as an in-house concept. The others are Charlie, whose confirmed return is one of SFV's major talking points, and...
  • Obviously, his V-Trigger will involve Oro simply unbinding his other arm and going to town with enhanced versions of his specials and Critical Art(s), much like how he had the MAX versions of his Super Arts in III.
  • Oro's confirmed for Season 5 DLC.
• Alex: Who also happens to be the main character of III, the face of a dark "I will be back" billboard at the Half-Pipe in Ultra IV (albeit as a remnant from the stage's origins in Street Fighter X Tekken, where the same billboard shows up), and whose pants in his recently-released statue figure have a somewhat different style in the back end than they have in his game appearances thus far.
  • Alex has been spotted as a backgrounder in the City of Chaos stage, but it remains to be seen if he'll be the last returning veteran of the initial roster or, failing that, make the cut as a DLC character.
  • Data mining SFV's beta has revealed Alex as one of the DLC characters.
• Gill and/or Urien: Going by the WMG a few blocks below positing that the Illuminati likely "rebuilt" Charlie, then let him loose to take out the Dictator (either willingly or because they couldn't hold him, possibly a combination of the two), it's entirely possible at least one of these two brothers will appear in at least a Nash-related cutscene.
  • Data mining SFV's beta has revealed Urien as one of the DLC characters. Gill has since been annouced as another Season 4 DLC character.
• Vega/Balrog (Claw): He's an Ensemble Dark Horse and a Shadaloo member.
  • Vega's been confirmed.
• Balrog/M. Bison (Boxer): He's a Street Fighter II member and like Vega, probably has a role in Bison's story.
  • Data mining SFV's beta has revealed Balrog as one of the DLC characters.
• D.D., Rook, Ingrid, Death and Mike Haggar
• A previously unplayable character such as a Final Fight enemy like Edi. E or Joe or Geki from the first game.
  • Joe's biggest problem is that his only notable move, a rolling sobat, was given to Cody when he showed up in Street Fighter Alpha 3. This, however, could lead to Joe pulling the reverse and gaining a few Cody-inspired moves as part of his movelist expansion ^{(for example...)} Instead of the Criminal Upper, Joe maybe performs an attack similar to Gundam Maxter's Cyclone Punch from Gundam Battle Assault 2? or even being reinvented as a more of a MMA fighter (it helps that the Ghost from Final Fight: Streetwise, who may or may not be Joe, was a pit fighter), complete with a V-Skill revolving around creating "weakpoints" and striking them again from extra damage (like Azrael's Drive in BlazBlue). There could also be a rivalry between Joe and Balrog that sly alludes to the whole "Mike = Balrog?" deal and the iconic intro to SFII. It doesn't hurt that Joe's theme, one of the few legitimately good pieces of music in SFI (doubly so for its Fighting Street arrange), would sound quite nice if remixed by Fukusawa.
• Juri Han: Fits well as a main antagonist and is an Ensemble Dark Horse to boot. Plus, who doesn't like them kicks?
  • Her V-Trigger would be the Feng Shui Engine. It only makes sense.
  • Data mining SFV's beta has revealed Juri as one of the DLC characters.
• One of the two other students of Psycho Power that M. Bison failed to kill, as stated by Capcom.
• Evil Dan, a version of Dan under the influence of the Satsui no Hadou. Dan actually comes to realize how weak he really is in comparison to everyone else, and learns about the Satsui no Hadou, and decides to tap into it. Just like Evil Ryu, this is more of a "What If?" character who isn't actually canon.
  • He may also become the biggest Glass Cannon in the history of the franchise: He'll hit like a freight train, but even being grazed by light punches would shave off large amounts of his health. This sort of massive gamble in playstyle would easily continue to make him a Joke Character, just in the tier of superpowered version of characters (Evil Ryu, Shin Akuma, etc.).
• "Sunburnt" Sakura, much like Charlie's new design is inspired by his dubiously canon MvC counterpart Shadow, Sakura could be further differentiated from her inspiration like Ken was, perhaps as V-Trigger as she had a swap Super in MvC2.
  • With Karin's recent confirmation, it'd be a missed opportunity to not have Sakura involved. In the vein of the above, having her "Sunburned" form as her V-Trigger could be Sakura tapping into that frightening fighting potential of hers that Dan instantly takes notice of in the Sakura Ganbaru! manga, reflected in her becoming Akuma-Lite for a brief time.
  • However, all that seems to be completely jossed, as Sakura comes back in SFV without the tan, and as a part of the Season 3 roster in Arcade Edition.
• Guile: The poor guy's been going after Bison and searching for clues as to whether Charlie Nash is still alive for so long that it's only inevitable that Guile be added to the roster, too, if only to finally give him some proper closure. In addition, with Nash's reveal, it'll be interesting to see what Guile's reaction would be if he discovered that his best friend actually survived the explosion in Street Fighter Alpha 3 only he Came Back Wrong: either a severe Heroic BSoD or a Roaring Rampage of Revenge (or both).
  • The fact that Charlie is far more flashier than in previous installments also means that Guile's inclusion would give fans a "classic" take on the archetype. In fact, Guile could be given defensive touches and take a few pages out of Remy's book (Blue Nocturne, anyone?) to bolster his turtling game.
  • Data mining SFV's beta has revealed Guile as one of the DLC characters.
• EX series character: While Capcom's attempt at making a 3D arena version of the series was a complete bomb, some of the characters in it are pretty original. The most likely candidates are Skullomania, Area, and Doctrine Dark.
  • Probably unlikely, as the characters are owned by Arika (the developers of the EX series). Arika has also been willing to use the characters for their own purposes (Allen and Blair showed up in Fighting Layer, and Hokuto, Kairi, Blair, D. Dark and Shadowgeist in a 3DS test program), so Arika would probably drive a hard bargain to let Capcom make use of the characters.
  • Just to nitpick: EX was actually a modest success up to EX3, and it wasn't actually (fully) 3D. Anyway, the licensing issues are the biggest roadblock, and neither Capcom nor Arika seem interested in working out a deal (for over a decade now), to the continued annoyance of the EX series faithful.
• Asura: If Akuma, as well as his Oni form, are involved in the game, those two will pick up right where they left off!
• A guest character from Darkstalkers: While the notion of putting Darkstalkers characters in other games is pretty much redundant at this point, putting them in a big-name series like Street Fighter could potentially drum up enough interest for Capcom to finally consider reviving the franchise (it helps that Yoshinori Ono also wants the franchise to be revived).
  • This will most likely be Morrigan, but it would be nice to finally show someone like Jon Talbain some love.
• Elena: Being a fairly popular character who was noticeably requested before being added late onto SFIV's roster (that is, she wasn't playable until Ultra Street Fighter IV), the developers might have decided that SFV will include her from the start.
• Rolento: See Elena.
• Zangief: May be a rival of sorts to Haggar as a means to illustrate the similarities and difference between the two.
  • Also, Mika was established as a really, really big fan of Zangief's in her Alpha 3 debut, so it'd be strange to not have Mika interact with her idol after all of these years (in-universe and out). Plus, while V isn't going for the full-on SFII nostalgia of IV, Zangief's status as one of the original World Warriors probably gives him a better chance of making it onto the roster than Hugo or Haggar, with his more plodding playstyle potentially serving as a good contrast to the nimble and acrobatic, mix-up-focused Mika or the straightfoward but faster and more strike-oriented Alex. No reason there can't be more than one grappler in this game, right?
  • Zangief confirmed.
• Sagat: Even though he canonically jumped ship from Shadaloo after Alpha 2, Sagat's the lone member of the Four Devas missing now that Balrog's set to be included as DLC, so it's natural to assume Capcom will eventually complete the set. Beyond that, he's Ryu's other main rival and one of the longest-standing members of the SF crew. I'd say the Emperor of Muay Thai has good chances for Year Two DLC. His V-Trigger will likely be some variation of his Angry Charge from the Alpha and IV series, except for that it not only buffs his Tiger Uppercut, but reduces the recovery of Sagat's fireballs to Old Sagat levels, giving many players flashbacks to the SFII days of old.
  • As of Arcade Edition and as part of the Season 3 character pass, Sagat makes his eventual return in SFV. Though he's saved for last.
• Rose: She's Bison's Enemy Without as well as something of the series' Big Good, and IV had her being cryptically prophetic about Ryu's fated battle against Bison, whom she's personally failed to kill twice before. Unless Bison offed her behind the scenes between games (which seems unlikely taking Rose and Guy's SSFIV endings into account), there's no reason Rose wouldn't be involved now that her other half has resurfaced. Soul Reflect might be turned into her V-Skill (with forward or backward DI accounting for the other two versions of the special, much like how Rashid has two V-Skills), and either Soul Illusion or Soul Satellite as her V-Trigger (the latter may be a safer bet, so as to not overlap with similar moves like Genei Jin, Seiei Enbu, and Feng Shui Engine).
  • Rose's confirmed for Season 5 DLC.
• Yun (& Yang): The Lee Bros. have been popular and fairly recurrent characters in the verse since their debut and the Bustling Side Street stage supposedly takes place in Hong Kong, their country of origin, bearing more than a passing resemblance to their stages, particularly the one in◊ NG/2I (note the Fei Long movie poster, neon signs, and scaffolding). Should Yang, the more overlooked twin, not make the cut, Yun may possibly be able to summon him for attacks like in CvS2, not unlike Mika and Nadeshiko. The other alternative is that they fight as a single unit (think Namco × Capcom or Project × Zone), sharing a lifebar and switching out back and forth with their attacks.
• Dudley and Makoto: Two other fan favorites from III, who have the added benefit of not drawing the same kind of ire Yun has been known to induce, much like the aforementioned Elena. Sure, they were just in SSFIV, but that didn't stop Ibuki, did it?
• Gouken's daughter ("Ojou-san"): Obligatory WTF-inducing shot in the dark. While she likely has been wiped clean from the slate of SF canon at present, she did at one point exist within the mythos and though Gouken himself may be included at a later date (as he's already a NPC), the fact that she's described as wearing a gi (like so) suggests Ojou-san has at least some martial arts instruction courtesy of her dad. Having another female (and possibly more traditional) Shoto could prove interesting regardless of Sakky's pending inclusion. And given that Ojou-san resembles Yuri Sakazaki, well...
• Eagle: He hasn't made a single appearance since he made a major comeback in Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium and then popped up in the portable versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3, plus it would be interesting to see how he would interact with Birdie and Zangief.
• Hunter: Just for the sake of having another surprise Final Fight character, this Final Fight 3 enemy could utilize multiple sports into his attacks, such as soccer, basketball, Frisbee throwing, baseball, American fooball, golf, etc. His theme could be a remix of Law and Disorder.
• The other two Neo Shadaloo members: Falke has already been confirmed to be in the game, so it's pretty likely that the other two will make an appearance in the future. The gorilla in particular would be highly interesting being the first animal to be playable in a Street Fighter game, even if it has the potential of leading to mass fan outcry of "STRET FITER NOT MUNKEY!"
• Eleven: He was a part of Illuminati's G-Project experiment, and was tossed aside by Urien being deemed a failure. You think he'd wouldn't feel resentment towards Urien for this? C'mon, that's some good story potential right there!
  • Surprisingly, confirmed!
• Maggio: He's looking for his older sister Aprile, who has been turned into one of Bison's Dolls, so he has a good motivation to participate in the game's events, and his design looks a bit to unique to simply be a detail only mentioned on the Capcom Fighters Network. Not to mention a yo-yo fighter would be pretty unique for Street Fighter.
• Seth: With the inclusion of Gill, Seth is the only missing final boss from the numbered Street Fighter games.
  • Seth was confirmed at the 2019 Capcom Cup. As an added bonus, Capcom even lampshaded his final boss status when they announced him.

Background coloring of the roster's portraits◊

The green represents returning characters, the blue represents characters which had not been in Street Fighter IV or Street Fighter II or had not been in a Street Fighter game for a while and the purple represents the new characters such as Necalli.

• Capcom's Matt Dahlgren confirmed in an interview with GameSpot that green is for "characters you'd expect in a Street Fighter game", blue for characters that haven't been seen in a while and purple for new characters. What Dahlgren meant by "characters you'd expect in a Street Fighter game" (whether it covers just Street Fighter II characters, or is expanded to characters in III, Alpha and/or IV) is still up in the air, though.
  • And with Dhalsim's reveal, the answer is "just SFII characters."

The silhouette◊ of six characters.

They are from left to right: Balrog, Guile, Alex, Ibuki, Juri, Urien.

• The announcer leak reveal the first set of characters is the correct ones, though whether the order is correct or not is in question.
• Confirmed through datamining.
  • The order is wrong though. The correct order as revealed by Capcom is Alex, Guile, Balrog, Ibuki, Juri, Urien.

Charlie has been Reforged into a Minion

This seems fairly obvious. His gameplay trailer presents him as a dark and sinister force with none of his good qualities. Capcom has toyed with the possibility of bringing Charlie back under the influence of Bison's Psycho Power in the past (Shadow as a secret character in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter followed by Charlie going by the Shadaloo codename "Shadow" in in the UDON comic book series, both cases showing him using Psycho Power-enhanced abilities). SFV just looks to canonize that at long last.

• But Charlie is the one who rescued Abel from Shadaloo, and it's been established in the comics that he is at least somewhat resistant to brainwashing via Psycho Power, so this might be less likely. Alternatively, Charlie may have broken M. Bison's hold on him.
• Probably true, but he probably isn't working for Bison, but for Gill/Urien/whoever is currently running the Illuminati. He has the same forehead gem that Gill and Urien have, and the official website shows Charlie in an Egyptian setting with statues identical to the ones that appear in the Egypt stage of Street Fighter III.
  • This is indeed the case according to the UDON-produced comic book Street Fighter V: The Life and Death(s) of Charlie Nash that was a SDCC 2015 exclusive, but UDON's continuity most likely isn't entirely congruent with actual SFV canon. (For starters, Charlie is turned into Shadow, is shot in the back by a helicopter a la Alpha 2 once snapped out of his brainwashing by Guile and Chun-Li, and is then revived by his Psycho Power so that he can basically enact his actual Heroic Sacrifice from Alpha 3, whereupon the "Secret Society" eventually recovers and reconstructs his body.)

Charlie is working alone, attempting to bring down Shadaloo

We know that Charlie freed Abel from Shadaloo at some point, so he obviously isn't working for Bison, at least anymore. This leaves a few possibilities; working for Gill and the Illuminati, or working on his own to bring down Bison. If Charlie was working for Gill, he likely wouldn't have been allowed to give Abel to the mercenaries after he rescued him, leaving Charlie working alone as the best possibility. As for the gem in his forehead, It's possible that the Psycho Drive exploding infused him with the powers he has now, and the Illuminati is responsible for actually rebuilding him. And as for his new, darker personality, he likely has PTSD from either dying and being restored to life, or from the traumatic injuries and surgeries.

• On top of that, Charlie isn't the type to go along with Bison willingly, and doesn't show the normal signs of Psycho Power brainwashing; purple sclera and short, emotionless single phrase speech. The Illuminati are also known for producing physical aberrations via experimentation, like Necro and Twelve.
• Wasn't Shadaloo already gone by Street Fighter III?
• If Bison is back, then it's likely that they just went into hiding, keeping all their activities on the down-low.
• A Q&A session for SFIII that was released before SFV's announcement established both Bison and Shadaloo as alive and operating during SFIII. If it was ever intended for Bison and Shadaloo to be gone come SFIII then that intent was retconned before SFV's announcement. Especially considering how the time gap between SFII and SFIII is now iffy due to the presence of multiple "kid" characters from SFIII in SFIV (such as Ibuki).
  • IV is explicitly set a year after II and the III series takes place at the turn of century. Fans generally assume II and III follow their real-life release dates (1991-1994 and 1997-1999, respectively), so while the narrative is a bit wonky, the presence of the "kid" characters in IV isn't as disruptive to the timeline as many claim. (Ibuki, for example, had a graduation exam and went to a ninja university in 3rd Strike, meaning she could be anywhere around 17-19 then and still be in high school a few years prior.)

This game will have more new characters than returning ones a la Street Fighter III

While the entire roster might not be new like the one from Street Fighter III was, since Capcom might want to bring back some familiar faces like Charlie to help bring older fans in, this is an entirely new game in the series and not an update to a previous one. They could get away with at least half the cast being new characters.

• Jossed, for now at least. There will be 12 returning characters and four brand new ones. How things change with DLC remains to be seen.
  • As of Arcade Edition, 7 DLC characters are new to SFV, while the other 11 are returning legacy characters.

Bison's storyline in this game is his body is deteriorating.

The white hair under his cap is a sign of this. He is becoming increasingly more in need to Body Surf to a new host as his current body has been degenerating since the destruction of Seth (so basically a retread of his arc with Ryu in Alpha 3 but this time with an impending deadline as opposed to simply enhancing his power).

Sonny Strait will be Nash's English VA.

And for good measure, he will sound like a really grim version of Maes Hughes' voice. This will be an Actor Allusion to the parallel between the relationships of Hughes & Mustang and Nash & Guile and how the former's death/disappearance motivated the latter's quest in both cases.

• Seems to be Jossed, as Jack Calabrisi (Lars in Street Fighter X Tekken) seems to be the one cast.
• Double Jossed, as Mike McFarland is his voice. Close enough!

All future character reveals will be on Tuesdays.

Sadly they didn't follow through with that since Ken was revealed on a Thursday (at San Diego's Comic-Con 2015). Would have been a neat gimmick.

• Most things related to video games, including the games themselves are released on Tuesdays.
• Rashid was revealed on a Friday, so consider this Jossed.

Charlie was stitched back together by Emily von Gerdenheim.

The sloppy stitching and the fact Nash's forehead skin graft has a third eye (taken from Donovan, maybe?) would seem to be something of a tell in this case. Victor's sister Emily probably has their father's notes, and put them to use putting Charlie back together. Plus, it's been established that Darkstalkers does take place in the same universe, though an unspecified amount of time beforehand.

The Arcade Mode final boss is Necalli in a permanently V-Triggered state

The way Necalli is designed when he unleashes his V-Trigger just screams "final boss", especially when you look at the scars on his body, which resemble V's, which seems to be a running theme with Street Fighter V.

• As of Arcade Edition, this may not be probably the case, as there are different "routes/ladders" depending on the various SF titles chosen, if anything, he'll be on the SFV route, but probably not on the explained above, however, consider this possibly jossed as Shin Akuma takes that idea with the permanent V-Trigger state.

Juri Han will become leader of S.I.N. and Necalli will serve as her Dragon.

Necalli will be our sub-boss (most likely in a perma-V-Trigger), and Juri will be our final boss. She will have become much more powerful since IV, and may end up causing Bison to pull a temporary Heel–Face Turn of sorts. Of course, this is all assuming Juri's ending in IV is canon.

• Jossed: Juri is working for the Illuminati.

The final boss of Arcade Mode won't be as hard as Seth was in Street Fighter IV

And in a nice twist, the next final boss really won't be hard as Seth, he/she will be harder.

• As of Arcade Edition, consider Shin Akuma to be this.

There will be a way to play as Yamato Nadeshiko

Possibly via a cheat code or a special costume that has her and R. Mika switch positions.

• As of Arcade Edition, that still hasn't be the case, other than PC modding.

The friend Rashid is looking for is Shaheen.

It'll serve as a teaser for Tekken X Street Fighter.

• Jossed. The name of Rashid's friend is Azam.
  • Double Jossed. Azam is Rashid's butler, not his missing friend.
• Jossed: While we don't know their name, the story mode's ending confirms that Rashid'e friend is female.

A revamped incarnation of Final Bison will serve as the game's True Final Boss, turning him into, moveset-wise, a carbon copy of General from Global Champion/Kaiser Knuckle.

Thus becoming the greatest (or worst, depending on your views) SNK Boss of all time since... well, the aforementioned General. Omega Mode in Ultra was simply the beginning of the end.

In all seriousness, since Bison wasn't killed off between II/IV and III like many were led to believe, Rose's prophecy of Ryu's final battle with Bison (the whole "the stars align to herald his coming" deal, remember?) would logically have to come true here unless Capcom wants to extend the warranty on Bison's Joker Immunity to Sigma or Dracula levels. If so, and if Bison is still using the body that was manufactured for him in IV, one capable of withstanding more (but not all) of his full Psycho Power like his original/Alpha body could, it stands to reason he'd once again take off the kiddies gloves for his last stand, mirroring the events of Alpha 3.

Rashid will become the new protagonist of Street Fighter V.

Following the pattern of III with Alex and IV with Abel. One could imagine if Rashid will take the role of the protagonist.

• Seemingly confirmed. Rashid's gets the majority of the story battles, and his search for his friend is one of the primary plotlines of the story mode.
• Now outright confirmed, as the Capcom Fighters Network character profile for Rashid calls him "the protagonist of the game's story mode."

Stages will once again be character-based.

• Kanzuki Estate: Karin Kanzuki (obvious connection and inspiration for this WMG)
• Bustling Side Street: Chun-Li (clearly a Chinese location)
• Forgotten Waterfall: Ryu (peaceful and isolated, good for training), Necalli (forgotten/unknown like him), or a new character.
• Union Station: Cammy or Birdie (screams Britain for the former, kinda urban for the latter). Maybe both?
• Hillside Plaza: Blanka(? Heavily hinted as such), Sean, or an unrevealed new character.
  • And her name is Laura.
• Underground Arena: Filled with Russian iconography and clearly relevant for Zangief.
• City in Chaos: Ken and/or Charlie (both being American and whatnot)
  • Both characters have previously been associated with the West Coast and Midwest ^note Ken's Alpha, Alpha 2, Alpha 3, and Second Impact stages all take place in the San Francisco Bay Area and it's suggested Ken's a native of the San Fran area; Charlie's Alpha stage is a nighttime variant of Ken's, his Alpha 2 stage is in Detroit, and his Alpha 3 stage is given as "Frankfort Hangar, USA" which might also place it in Michigan (the stage select map makes it hard to tell for sure), but Ken's stage in Third Strike was a variant of Alex's, who does hail from the Big Apple, so maybe?
• The minaret-like structures seen on the top left area of Necalli's artwork are a very subtle reference to the Templo Mayor, an ancient Aztec site located in what is now the middle of Mexico City. It's theorized therefore that he will have a stage set amongst the ruins.

Laura is Blanka's disciple

This explains why she manages to use electricity, also her Critical Art is a variant of Blanka's signature Rolling Attack.

• Consider this completely jossed. While Laura does appear in Blanka's Story, she doesn't refer to Blanka as a teacher/student or anything of the sort.

Laura's story will explain how Sean became Ken's student

So Laura is the heir to Matsuda family fighting style while Sean is her younger brother. Her trailer also shows her fighting Ken, and Sean's backstory is that he wanted to become Ken's student after seeing him in a U.S. Martial Arts championship. Thus, Laura's story will have her travel to participate in the U.S. Martial Arts Tournament and fight Ken. She'll lose (or Ken will put up a hell of a fight) while Sean is watching, and it gives Sean the idea on how to get out of his family's shadow — by becoming Ken's student.

• The problem with this WMG is that all evidence so far points to V being set after the events of the III series, such as Word of God stating Bison was laying low between IV and now because he realized the influence the Illuminati had in global affairs, Shadaloo's operations included, so unless Laura's meeting with Ken is depicted as a flashback, Sean would already be Ken's pupil at this point in time unless he broke away from Ken for whatever reason. She could chew out Ken for half-assing her brother's training or mention him in some other capacity (and Sean might cameo in Laura's story anyway), however.
  • Capcom's UK community manager revealed the game takes place before Street Fighter III — check out the 32:50 mark of this video.
    • Strange... I guess Capcom doesn't want to move too far beyond the II era in-universe (possibly making the timeline more convoluted in the process), but this does make the WMG likely.
• This would be the perfect chance to have a "Take That, Us!" moment, with Laura being absolutely FURIOUS with Ken, blaming him for Sean's sudden drop in fighting ability. In the original Street Fighter III, Sean was actually one of the better top tier characters before being massively nerfed to Joke Character status in 2nd Impact.
  • Actually, Sean was middle of the road in NG, maybe upper-mid, then surged to top-tier in 2I (generally agreed to be third behind Ibuki and Akuma) before dropping to dead last (below even Hugo!) in 3S. Still, it'd be great to see Capcom somehow acknowledge this.

Blanka is actually a member of the Matsuda family

The fact that Laura's fighting style is so similar to Blanka's is not a coincidence. To this poster its clear Blanka, or Jimmy, was actually a member of Matsuda family, most likely either Laura and Sean's long lost cousin. The shackles on Blanka's ankles were probably a training tool used by the Matsuda's as a means to perfect their fighting style, and Jimmy before that plane crash was only just starting to train in the style. He ended up subconsciously perfecting certain moves and aspects of it during his time in the wild while combining it with his own personal touches as he tried to survive. The reason his mother did not mention about his heritage was because she married into the family, and either she thought Blanka was too emotional immature to handle the mind blowing revelation that he's part of a larger family and/or she was just so incredibly happy to see Jimmy alive after so long she forgot to mention it.

• Consider this jossed, while Blanka is now in SFV, his story in that takes a different angle to this WMG here. Although he happened to bump into Laura, he doesn't see her as a relative or anything of the sort.

On the topic of the friend Rashid is looking for...

The friend Rashid is looking for is either one of two people, in my opinion. He's either looking for...

• Charlie Nash. Perhaps, like Abel, he became friends with Charlie when he was young, and was in denial about his "death" so he believed Shadaloo captured him (which, from what I'm guessing, they probably did).
• Abel. Mostly because Abel seems too important to disappear after one game, and Bison seems to have a thing for experimentation.
  • Jossed. Rashid is looking for a friend of his named Azam, though this doesn't necessarily mean he hasn't crossed paths with Charlie or Abel in the past.
  • Double Jossed. Azam is Rashid's butler, not his missing friend.
• Jossed: It's a female childhood friend turned hacker and game designer who was kidnapped by Shadaloo.

Saikyo ninjas?

There are several pink-clad ninjas in the background of the Kanzuki Estate, unless this Troper's eyes are being deceitful. The only character that distinctly stands out for their pinkishness is Dan... who, if you recall the last game, started up his own dojo. Maybe after Sakura convinced him to update his ad so people could actually find the place, he trained presumably competent people who could use/adapt Dan's Saikyo style into something worthwhile, with those people becoming a ninja order that wears pink in respect for their teacher?

• Jossed: The ninjas are all from the Kanzuki clan's personal ninja order.

The censorship applied to Cammy and R. Mika is only temporary

Capcom only applied it in order to make sure the ESRB gives the game a T rating. Shortly after the game's release, they'll change it back via an update patch.

• As of Arcade Edition, consider this to be completely jossed, as its left that way due to possible ESPN and Capcom Cup mandates. PC modding restores it, though however there's nothing like this on the PS4 version.

Fang/F.A.N.G. will be killed by the True Final Boss if certain conditions are met prior to his fight in Arcade Mode.

Upon beating every opponent without losing once and getting at least three perfects, either Akuma (In a callback to Super Street Fighter II Turbo) or a powered-up M. Bison will interrupt the fight just before it begins and brutally murder him, before turning towards the player character and fighting them in his place.

• Doubtful that F.A.N.G. is going to be the final boss, though - he is merely Bison's right-hand man, after all.
• Yeah, if anything, either that powered-up M. Bison or a Necalli permanently in V-Trigger (especially with the way Necalli's V-Trigger works) is more likely gonna be the final boss.
  • However, as of Arcade Edition, Akuma is exactly this, as Shin Akuma (but not what you expect from the above). The portions of the above are jossed for Bison/F.A.N.G./Necalli.

Necalli will become a boss character in some form.

The way he's shown in the introduction sequence certainly seems to hint at this.

• As of Arcade Edition, consider this possibly jossed.

F.A.N.G. is a Thin Man.

He's really tall and skinny, his head has a weird shape, he uses poison in his attacks, he wears the same type of glasses, and the music used in his reveal trailer sounds a lot like something out of Enemy Unknown.

Evil Ryu will be a secret boss character

In the 16 character trailer, we can see Ryu tapping into the Satsui no Hado when battling Necalli. This could be hinting at Evil Ryu making an appearance, most likely as a boss character. This would make sense if Necalli is indeed going to be the final boss.

• As of Arcade Edition, consider this possibly jossed. Shin Akuma makes his return.

Balrog will be retconned like no tomorrow

In this Story Mode trailer between 0:16-0:21, there is a man seen from the back whose face isn't shown at all. He slowly holds his head down, worried as he oversees Bison's newest plan that will devastate the Earth in 24 hours. Many people believe that this is Balrog.

Considering the military side cap he's wearing, Balrog is a part of the US military and is in fact a mole within Shadaloo's ranks and has been a covert operator observing the evil syndicate for several years. His backstory is vague enough that this could work, not to mention that he hasn't had much limelight in Street Fighter lore thus far, so there's several things he could've done behind the scenes. He's not a part of the initial roster for SFV, one reason being that Capcom doesn't want us seeing him being heroic yet. It wouldn't be surprising at all if Guile and/or Chun-Li was aware of his role, as well.

Balrog is likely a Genius Bruiser that was playing up the Dumb Muscle money loving act all while obtaining valuable intel about Shadaloo. Being one of the top 4 members, what's to say that this didn't give him or someone from his team easy access into Shadaloo's computer systems to see the countdown in the first place?

Ono also said that the story of SFV will be far deeper than any other SF entry thus far. Many of those "What if?" scenarios seen in characters' battle encounters and endings will likely be cast aside. The same goes for encounters with Balrog in past games, which were barely relevant to the main stories.

• Jossed: That's not Balrog, but Byron Taylor, a new character working for the US military with Guile.

Balrog is now working with the Illuminati

In the official teaser silhouettes◊ for the DLC characters, Balrog seems to have the symbol for the all seeing eye (an Illuminati symbol) on his outfit.

• Confirmed: Balrog sells his services to the Urien as in his story mode.

Chun-Li's father is still alive...somehow

During story mode, Vega makes a remark to Chun-Li about knowing his fate, and departs as soon as she asks what he means. This would contradict past events, such as Gen and Bison directly referencing her father's death, but it's certainly possible.

Rashid's missing friend is.....

Juri. He mentioned they work for S.I.N, ran in bad with Shadaloo, and has an eye-pun in their username. All 3 of these would apply to Juri. As she's DLC, her story would either show how she ended up in such a situation, or serve as a conclusion to Rashid's journey.

• Alternatively, C. (see) Viper.
  • Can't be Viper, because Viper herself warns Rashid against hunting down Shadaloo during his story mode.
• Necro.
  • Jossed.

Obligatory Top Tier Guessing.

Game's really close coming out anyway so now might be a good time to start making guesses on who's going to dominate the scene for now.

My guess for Top V Characters (see what I did there) in no particular order are: Nash, Bison, Karin, Chun-Li and F.A.N.G.

• As of March 2016, Bison is among best in online (majority of the top 200 players use Bison), while Infiltration has won two major tournaments as Nash. Karin and Chun-Li are considered very good. F.A.N.G. is unfortunately not as lucky.

The DLC characters are all being developed simultaneously

We were initially guessing that Balrog was the first DLC character to be released, as some players got to test out a nearly-finished build of him at Capcom Cup 2015. However, this was later Jossed by Capcom, who would state that Alex would be our first DLC character. Why would they release him first when Balrog is basically good to go? My guess is that the characters are all being developed at the same time, and will either be released in the order shown on the Season Pass (Alex - March, Guile - April, Balrog - May, Ibuki - July, Juri - August, Urien - September), or in a different order altogether.

Why would they all be developed at once? Well, perhaps...

The DLC characters will factor into the Cinematic Story Mode

We can see Nash looking at a photograph of Guile in the trailer, as if to show he still has some sense of humanity left and hasn't been completely consumed by the desire to kill Bison. Not only that, but makes a cameo in the Character Stories as well alongside fellow DLC characters Balrog, Juri and Ibuki, with all of them sporting redesigns. Why would they be popping up here? Well, if half the DLC roster is to be released before the Cinematic Story Mode goes live in June, it would only make sense for some, if not all the DLC characters to factor into it, especially if they're all being developed simultaneously as discussed in the above WMG.

• Confirmed, all six characters have a role to play in the story mode, though their importance and screen time varies.
  • Balrog is the fourth King of Shadaloo and appears most of the time Shadaloo is involved in anything, although he may be ready to betray them to the Illuminati.
  • Guile rejoins Chun-Li and Cammy to hunt down Shadaloo and M. Bison, and meets up with Charlie.
  • Juri is on her own now, but has taken a job from the Illuminati to take down Shadaloo. She also helps Cammy and Decapre rescue the other Dolls from Shadaloo, apparently her resentment of Cammy was nothing compared to that of M. Bison.
  • Ibuki was invited to a party at the Kanzuki estate, and gets pulled into the fight against Shadaloo when Karin brings together the rest of the World Warriors to launch an assault on the Shadaloo base.
  • Alex has a friendly tag team match with Laura against Zangief and R. Mika, until they are interrupted by a blackout caused by Shadaloo. Alex later meets Dhalsim who is looking for a chess piece that Alex had in his possession.
  • Urien is working behind the scenes, as the Illuminati are trying to stop Shadaloo ahead of Street Fighter III, he does little but berate Helen.

F.A.N.G's acronym

It actually stands for Friendly And Nice Guy.

• To this troper however...no, not really.

Dhalsim will die in the events of SFV and be replaced by Manesh in a future game.

As in the Fridge Horror regarding Dhalsim, Necalli might be killing off Dhalsim. Meanwhile, it is suspicious that Dhalsim's Story Mode is all about Manesh's training montage. So the only logical conclusion is that Manesh is being groomed by the story as Dhalsim's Suspiciously Similar Substitute who will be taking his place in a future game.

• Jossed, at least on the dying part. Necalli fails to devour Dhalsim during the story.

The real reason why Birdie became a Big Eater

In Birdie's Alpha 3 ending, he breaks into Shadaloo's base after unexpectedly defeating Bison, with the intention of using Bison's Psycho Drive to become super-duper powerful. As one might expect, however, it doesn't work; the Psycho Drive actually weakens him instead, and he gets trapped inside, too, so when he eventually got out, he was most likely weakened a lot.

Obviously, his Alpha 3 ending isn't canon, but that's not to say we can't apply Broad Strokes. Maybe, one day, during the events of the Alpha series, Birdie snuck inside the Psycho Drive when Bison was off murdering people on Tuesdays just to see what would happen; maybe he thought the power of the Psycho Drive would increase his chances of getting his own back against Ryu for that beating he received back in England. In any case, he was severely weakened, but was able to escape before Bison found out. Unfortunately, he was so weak that he had to take several months off work, which Bison granted, being well-known for his generous incentives for prospective henchmen. It was during this time that he got slighly pale again from Psycho Drive-induced sickness (from which he also derives his infinite supply of Psychic sneezes), and he began over-eating to compensate for his loss of energy.

His newfound over-eating habits eventually became routine, so he continued to scarf on Hammerspace doughnuts and various other things even after he had recovered, thus developing his characteristic gut. Incidentally, by the time he recovered, he had also moved up quite a fair bit on the Tier List, so maybe the Psycho Drive did make him stronger after all.

Rashid is the Disappeared Dad of C. Viper's daughter, Lauren, which is why he's out to find Viper

Viper disappears during the events of V and Rashid goes out to find her. Before she vanished, C. Viper warns Rashid not to pursue Shadaloo because it's dangerous. It would also explain why they are so close in social media: he's keeping close tabs on Lauren and Viper. His presence and watchful eye from afar also explain why Lauren is basically living a good life financially, if Viper's arcade ending from Street Fighter IV is any indication. The only reason they aren't married or in a relationship is due to a combination of Married to the Job and Dangerous Workplace.

• Jossed: His childhood friend is one of the hackers kidnapped by Shadaloo to help with Operatio C.H.A.I.N.S. She's also dead.

Helen is in fact an Illuminati agent

She just happens to be the one that "finds" Charlie and helps him recuperate. Come on, she's a plant!!!

• Confirmed by the ending in the Cinematic Story Mode. She's Kolin, Gill's secretary, in disguise.

The reason why Charlie and Guile aren't friends anymore

It's because Charlie has a massive grudge towards the military he was once part of, since it decided to betray him just when he had defeated M. Bison in Alpha 2. After Charlie was, um... "fixed" by the Illuminati, he engaged in a quest for answers why the military betrayed him, and discovered that many of his former higher-ups were allied with Shadaloo. It would explain why he's so cold to Guile after so many years apart — because Guile wasn't there when he was betrayed, Charlie thought his best friend/pupil had abandoned him. Guile's promotion twisted the knife even further, as Charlie now associates military personnel of higher rank with loyalty to Shadaloo — therefore, Guile's higher rank makes him a Shadaloo agent by default.

• Jossed: Charlie holds nothing against Guile in the Story Mode, he's just more fixated on defeating Bison. And Guile didn't abandon Charlie; he offered to help in that fight against Bison but Nash refused to take him.

Ryu's "special training."

In the story, Ryu is briefly Put on a Bus because he is tasked by Gouken to undergo "special training" so he can control the Satsui no Hadou. Where does Ryu go? He crosses dimensions into the world of Super Smash Bros. Just some food for thought:

• Ryu is no stranger to crossing dimensions if his guest appearance in Asura's Wrath is any indication. Assuming that that particular encounter is canon, it would have taken place during or after Street Fighter IV as Ryu and Evil Ryu appear in their Street Fighter IV incarnations. After Ryu is knocked back into his own dimension by Akuma, Ryu goes back into training after succumbing to the Satsui no Hadou in the fight against Asura which sets up his appearance in Street Fighter V, where he is training to suppress the Satsui no Hadou. Gouken then instructs Ryu to cross into another dimension so that he can learn to fight without relying on the Satsui no Hadou, with that other dimension being the world of Smash Bros. Lo and behold, not only is Ryu's appearance in Smash Bros. lifted from his model from Street Fighter V, Evil Ryu is nowhere to be seen in Smash Bros.
  • FYI, the Lost Episodes of Asura's Wrath are, according to Word of God, non-canon. (Rule of Cool and Rule of Fun were almost certainly in play.) That doesn't detract from the rest of the theory since Ryu still struggles with the Satsui no Hadou in the actual story of V.

Bison is really trying to stop the Illuminati

According to his official SFV bio, conquering the world is NOT the purpose of doing acts like launching the Black Moon. You can ask what Bison would need such power for, if not world domination.

SFV has the Illuminati carry out a scheme to end Shadaloo, with Bison's death at Charlie's hands written in prophecy. And while Charlie fails to slay Bison, Bison dies at Ryu's hands with Shadaloo falling.

SFV establishes that Bison's death is necessary for the Illuminati to go ahead with its plans for mankind. Now, I propose that Bison knew about the Illuminati, its leadership, and its plans. He was seeking power to crush Gill and end the Illuminati's designs on the world. The Illuminati caught wind of this and come SFV is moving against him, reviving Charlie to serve as an assassin.

• That may be true, but even if so he's still pure evil. This isn't either Shadaloo or the Illuminati being dark heroes all along, but two evil organizations — one the robber baron, the other the moral tyrant — plotting against each other.
• Possible that some time between getting resurrecting after getting killed by Akuma in SFII and after the events of SFIV, Bison found out that the Illumanati actually exists, initially writing it off as conspiracy theory superstition, and it was subtly manipulating his actions the whole time. Of course, being the arrogant mass murderer with a God complex that he is, Bison decides to put his usual world domination plot on hold to concentrate fully on building up resources to ultimately destroy the Illumanti, leaving him unopposed to Take Over the World for real. Of course, thanks to various factors, Bison fails spectacularly...

Five Season 2 Characters

Word of God says the five non-Akuma DLC characters will be "new to the SF universe." This is an interesting choice of words considering that it can be interpreted as:

A. Being a brand new character like Rashid, Laura, etc.

B. Be from a Capcom franchise outside of SF like Final Fight, Rival Schools, etc.

C. Being a returning non-playable character who is now playable (possibly for Helen/Kolin).

The Five's silhouettes can be seen here◊. Already the upper left one has been claimed to be Helen/Kolin followed by Ed, Abigail and Menat. Possible guesses for all of them are:

• Gen's Disciple-Would fit with Gen getting killed by Akuma in the latter's story mode.
• Kazumi Mishima presumably to explain how she saved Akuma.

Falke's Voice Actors

Since NewGenerationPictures tends to have voice actors from all around the US and even Canada, it'll be fun to guess who voices Falke both in Japan and in America. For now, I'm going to put my guesses.

For the Japanese side, I will posit:

• Megumi Hayashibara: For this one, I pretty much thought of Tsubame Ohtori from Cyberteam in Akihabara, a tragic brainwashed girl full of emotional anguish, which in the recent "test reports" on the Street Fighter twitter imply she is.
• Kotono Mitsuishi: For this one, I referenced her voices as Juri Arisugawa from Revolutionary Girl Utena and Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion, who are both troubled women with emotional issues. Mitsuishi also has an incredible amount of range that I believe would suit Falke very well.
• Yuri Shiratori: a woman who often voices mysterious waifs, and Falke gives me mysterious waif vibes.
• Kumiko Nishihara: The seiyuu of Shiori Takatsuki from Revolutionary Girl Utena who occassionally voices Femme Fatales, which I am somewhat expecting Falke to be judging by her appearance.

For the English side:

• Lisa Ortiz: Wishful thinking considering she already voices Noemblu, but the deep voice she uses for Shiori would be SO GOOD for Falke.
• Rachael Lillis: Again, wishful thinking due to me loving her voice since I was a little kid, but I would ADORE it if she voiced Falke using an inbetween of her Jessie voice and her Utena voice. I would die if that happened.
• Mela Lee: Often voices elegant people like Rachael Alucard from BlazBlue, Canary from Hunter x Hunter, and Adult Tiki from Fire Emblem: Awakening, Mela Lee could lend an elegant yet deadly voice to Falke.
• Xanthe Huynh: Her voice has been lent to elegant yet deadly characters such as Haru from Persona 5, and it'd be quite a shock for people to see a Love Live voice cast member (the mild Hanayo Koizumi even!) to be an unstable villain or even anti-villain.

Feel free to add your own Japanese and English voice actors to the speculation pile!

• All of the above are jossed. Her Japanese voice actress is Sumire Uesaka, while her English voice actress is Kira Buckland.

Cody, as Metro City's new mayor, will try to solve the Mad Gear problem by enlisting the help of Zeku and his new Strider organization.

• Cody's story mode will either use this plot point as a basis, or end on it. Then, if a second cinematic story mode is released, someone looking for Zeku's services (likely Menat) will go through Cody to find him, tying in Cody, Zeku and Abigail (as a Mad Gear boss) into a general story arc which they don't really fit nicely into otherwise.
• Or maybe instead of Mad Gear, they would have to deal with the Skull Cross Gang. This could even lead to members of the Skull Cross Gang becoming playable in the future (like say Arby, May, Hunter, Drake, Stray, and so on).
• Somewhat jossed; although Zeku does offer his services and his organization to Cody (who doesn't really know who Zeku is beyond being Guy's master), he seems to rebuff the proposition. The offer still stands, though, and should the new story mode happen, the idea is still on the table.

G is connected to Q.

• There are many hints in-game that suggest that G is Q, before becoming Q.
  • Both have a one-letter name.
  • Both have similar physical builds, one point in particular being their height.
  • G's story costume greatly resembles Q, and his 15th color palette for that costume is a direct reference to Q.
  • If you listen closely to G's theme, the backing melody is almost the exact same as Q's theme, and it also shares the same type of beat.
  • G has several of Q's moves, except performed with more flair and motor control instead of clumsily like a zombie or a robot.

G is Q, but either no longer human or resurrected from the dead.

• Because Q's moves are degraded forms of G's, it's possible that in the process of becoming Q, G Came Back Wrong, and that's why he can be clearly heard mumbling "I'm...abomination..." beneath the mask. Who has the ability to physically alter the human body and resurrect people from the dead? The Secret Society. They already did it once with Nash, so it's entirely possible that they ended up doing the same, or a new variation, with G.

G is not Q, but rather the template for Q, meaning Q is the "Robo-Ky" version of G.

• There are many hints that Q is a robot. His entire head appears to be robotic in nature, since they go to great lengths in order to hide his skin, he acts and moves like a robot, and even his skeleton appears robotic when electrocuted. It's entirely possible for G's fighting data to be collected, but not his powers. Q lacks G's powers but uses clumsy versions of his physical attacks.

G is not Q, but rather controls him, and Q is multiple people

• G goes on about uniting the people of the world together as one, but what he's really talking about is creating a massive, worldwide Hive Mind. Q is the result of someone buying into G's rhetoric and becoming "one" with him.
  • Q moves in a stiff, robotic manner because he isn't fully in control of his actions, which also explains why Q and G's movesets have overlaps.
  • Q appears in multiple places around the world seemingly simultaneously. Each Q is actually a separate individual who came into contact with G during his world travels and unfortunately fell victim to his brainwashing.
  • Concept art of Q shows that his mask actually has a keyhole on the side, implying that he's been locked inside the mask. G is the one who holds the key to unmasking Q (possibly keeping it inside his gold pocketwatch). One of the notes in Q's concept art also notes that he should "feel like he's being manipulated from behind the scenes".
  • G's concept art shows his Q-like story costume being worn by both a man and woman, implying that these two are followers and that there are some female Q's.
  • G's Image Song contains some choice lyrics that imply he's brainwashing people.
    "Be happy you don't have to think for yourself"
    "Everybody takes part, whether you choose it or not"
    "So don't ask why, just follow his stint"

G's true identity is the demon Glasya-Labolas, the "President of Hell", and a far greater evil than the likes of Shadaloo or the Secret Society.

• As described here, there are several interesting pieces of evidence that paint G in a very sinister light.
  • G's tattoos of the world on his body represent his idea of centrism: the world revolving around him.
  • G owns a pocket watch, specifically the kind used by hypnotists.
  • One of G's signature gestures is offering a handshake, which is symbolic of a contract.
  • G's alternate costume is shown being worn by a woman, indicating a possible cult following which would be enforced by his Footube channel.
  • Q is depicted as being in several places at once, indicating there are many Qs in existence.
  • Q is depicted as being unable to control their own body, or even their own voice, being commanded and manipulated like a brainwashed puppet and forced to go against their own instincts into using G's fighting style.
  • Q's wonpose involves them shedding a tear at the sight of their fallen opponent, sometimes before crushing their head beneath their foot.
  • The fact that there are many Qs indicates that they are spies for G, sent around the world to spread his word.
  • Q’s ending implies that he’s/they’ve been killing fighters. Glasya presides over bloodshed and murder.
• Glasya is not the only Ars Goetia president whose name starts with G; Gaap also fits the bill, and is among the four main leaders with Beleth, Asmoday, and Belial to boot. Interestingly, while the Goetia refers to Glasya as a president and earl, the Book of Oberon, calling him Gloolas, ranks him as a king. If G is Glasya, then being a president is perhaps a pretense to conceal his actual kingly ambitions. For even more fun, G is associated with gold, the metal needed to create the control lamens for kings.

Future Season Pass rosters

• Season 4
  • C.Viper- She'll be investigating the Illuminati or Q in her story.
  • Necro- Will be on the run from the Illuminati in his story.
  • Q- His story will reveal more about him or show his connection to G.
  • Oro
  • Sodom
  • Phantom- F.A.N.G.'s apprentice from supplementary material whose story will focus on her training under F.A.N.G.
• Season 5
  • Elena
  • Makoto
  • Rose
  • Gen
  • Dudley
  • Rolento
• Season 6
  • Fei Long
  • T. Hawk
  • Dan
  • E. Honda
  • Hakan
  • Gill
• The format, at very least, is jossed; Ono has said that SFV will be steering away from the Season Pass model. Most of the characters are likely jossed as well, as it's been subtly implied/theorized that the reason for no more Season Passes is that Capcom is not planning on introducing enough characters to V to justify an entire other Pass.

New character additions

• Someone from Delta Red as there is more than enough information to create fighting styles for anyone that gets added.
• A member from Neo-Shadaloo, either the gorilla or the other guy.
• Someone from the Illuminati that serves Urien in the same way that Kolin serves Gill. They'll be infused with his metal powers like she was infused with Gill's ice powers because there have been enough electric power characters already.

Possible Guest Fighter choices

• Morrigan
• Captain Commando
• Nathan Spencer
• A Breath of Fire character
• Dante
• Leon Kennedy
• Spider-Man
• Wolverine
• Terry Bogard
• Jin Kazama or Heihachi Mishima
• Scorpion

Zeku trained in Northeast Asia

• The Tungus Tribe of Siberia are said to be the original Striders since the 19th century. Zeku traveled to Siberia to learn about Strider training from the Tungus Tribe. Zeku is not the first Strider, but learned to be a Strider from them, and incorporates their teachings into his own Bushinryu style when travelling back to Japan. This Strider-Bushinryu hybrid martial arts style, Shin Bushinryu, is passed on to Guy of Final Fight, Ginzu/Sho of Captain Commando in 2026, and Strider Hiryu of Strider in 2048.
• Zeku learns the Teki energy kick from training with the Striders in Siberia. This technique gets passed down to Tong Pooh and the Four Winds sisters, and Kirin from Osman and Cannon Dancer.
• Strider Hiryu is born in Siberia eighteen years before the events of Strider, claims to be both Tungus and Japanese, and may be a descendant of Zeku, who fathers a child during his stay in Siberia.

Zeku and Bushin the god of war

Zeku's outfit references Bushin the god of war from Forgotten Worlds. Bushin is the patron deity of the Bushinryu fighting style that has lasted for centuries, has existed since at least the Sengoku period, and is rumored to have originated in Tibet. Guy is shown meditating in front of the statue of Bushin in the ending of Capcom Fighting Evolution. Practitioners of Bushinryu follow the tradition of meditation "in the shadow of Bushin," as with the motto, "Always meditate in preparation for war." Bushin is a powerful but neutral being, providing inspiration to the students of his fighting style. Bushin is not outright malicious until Bios arrives in the 29th century and activates Bushin, converting the god of war to his own side, as Bios has done with the Egyptian deities in Pyramid World, and Fujin and Raijin in Sky World. Because the boss fight shows Bushin under the influence of Bios, Bushin's appearance in Forgotten Worlds is not representative of Bushin's true nature.

• Also, 2-P is implied to be the second Unknown Soldier. He later came back in “Streetwise” as 2-Ill. Maybe he’s become aware of this thing?

Zeku creates a different Strider timeline

In the original Strider, the Soviet Union survives into the 21st century and is taken over by the Kazakh Federation. This is an alternate future timeline that is not the same future as Street Fighter. Zeku ends up creating a more contemporary version of Strider in the Street Fighter setting that diverges from the main Strider games.

Phantom, F.A.N.G.’s protege, is an amnesiac Marz

Given that F.A.N.G. managed to survive the fall, it’s reasonable to think she did too, unless F.A.N.G. killed and ate her too. Her memories busted by a combination of the sheer trauma she had as a Doll and the fall, she ended up enlisted into the ranks of the very man who took her down.

If Dan Hibiki does make it into the game, it'll not be how you expect.

OK, so if Dan gets in as the fortieth character, he'd probably get in as either regular old Dan or an Evil Dan variation, right?

Wrong.

If Dan gets in, I can see two ways it'll go. One, he'll get in, but as a follower of G. He will be brainwashed and wearing the Q mask and everything and making cult references and stuff.

But, there's another way. What if Dan comes not as Dan, but as the Keiko X-Kira datamined from Dojo Mode? Let me explain: Dan is some way in the process of transitioning, and they or she aren't Dan anymore, but Keiko. And they love being Keiko and won't have it any other way.

Plus, it'd explain their absence from the game; they don't wanna come in the game until they've finished transitioning!

Oh, and if you want references: there's lots of references to Dan/Keiko preferring a feminine gender presentation, envying women for wearing clothes, and even saying "I'd make a cute girl" in their quote about Ed (I think??)'s Darkstalkers costume. Dan/Keiko, if Capcom tries it, might even be the second trans character in the game. And I'd love that.

• Likely jossed. Developer footage of Dan confirmed he's his usual goofy, pink gi-wearing self.

G's "everyone is me" talk is an allusion to Walt Whitman's Song of Myself

After all, G is characterized as flaming American "Uncle Sam" type, combined oddly with "We are all one" universalist rhetoric. And the most distinctly American version of that rhetoric is probably Whitman's all-encompassing "self".

The final fighter of Season V (and the game overall) will be released in February 2021.

Given how the number 5 is a prominent motif in the game (if you couldn't tell by now), it seems fitting that the final fighter would be released on SFV's fifth anniversary.

• Jossed—the final fighter will release in Fall 2021.

Season V will include the gorilla and the man accompanying Ed and Falke in Ed's Story Mode ending.

Out of the three people that accompanied Ed in his ending, only Falke became playable, while the two mentioned above were left out. It's entirely possible for them to finally gain playable status before SFV finishes its run—and if not, there's always a potential Street Fighter VI.

• Jossed for at least one of them—four of the Season V characters aren't the gorilla or the man. Given that there's only one slot left, at least one of them will be DLC, but not both of them.

Luke is connected to Joe and/or Captain Commando.

• Some of Luke's attack animations are dead ringers for Joe's, so Joe may have trained him in some fashion.
• Something's up with Luke's forearms: he can make them swell and turn red to enhance some of his attacks. CapCom has cyber arms with flamethrowers in them.
• Luke's star motif aligns with the prominent star on CapCom's jacket.

Luke is Charlie's son or at the very least connected to him.

• One of Luke's costumes really emphasizes the similarity between the two, especially the haircut.
  • Jossed to an extent. Luke's father is not Nash, but the similarities between them may end up being noted by Guile, as Luke's story involves being assigned to his unit.

Luke is connected to the Q plotline.

• The introduction to Luke's story mode has several nods and allusions to Q, such as the crowd of people running away and the incident being described in a mysterious but dangerous manner. Perhaps the biggest allusion, however, is Luke's father bearing somewhat of a resemblance to Q.

Luke is a nod to Street Fighter 2010

• Future of Street Fighter" and shooting projectiles from his arms. The main character of that game did that and at least in the English localization, "Ken" (Kevin in Japan) was a street fighter at some point. He may be just a nod to that or Capcom's looking to work in that in a more fitting fashion.

The warriors whose souls Necalli is prophesized to devour are not Ryu, Dhalsim, and M. Bison

• The descriptions of the three warriors from the Warrior Prophet appear to be talking about the aforementioned three fighters, but in reality, they're talking about three other warriors. For instance, there is another warrior serving a god of fire that's destined to get their soul devoured by Necalli, rather than Dhalsim. This is why Necalli failed to devour Ryu, Dhalsim, and Bison's souls.