Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
One of the more interesting stories to go around the fighting game community in the last week was a rumor that Fei Long was not likely to appear in further Street Fighter games. The reason? Allegedly, the Bruce Lee estate wanted to eliminate homages to the late martial artist and actor that might be seen as humorous or comedic. Regardless of the plausibility of that effort, the Bruce Lee estate recently spoke to these rumors, claiming that they were outright untrue and that it had no contact with Capcom over Fei Long.
The story began earlier this week when various outlets picked up a story from Street Fighter 5 composer Daniel Lindholm, who made tracks such as Cody’s theme for the game. According to comments made by Lindholm (which have been taken down, but were logged by some outlets) with credit to apparent sources close to both Capcom and the Lee family, it was extremely unlikely for Fei Long to return.
“They have basically said that any kind of resemblance to Mr. Bruce Lee is now omitted for comedic effect, comic stuff,” Lindholm said. “It needs to be honorable.”
The Bruce Lee Twitter, run by Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon responded to the rumors, saying they were entirely untrue.
“We never made any comments of this nature,” the estate tweeted in response. “We have no idea who Daniel Lindholm says his 'close friends' of the family are, but his comments are entirely false surrounding the Bruce Lee Family.”
Lindholm’s comments circulated quite heavily among Street Fighter fans, even to the point where he himself had to address the original story that went around. Lindholm claimed the situation was “hypothetical” and not concrete.
“The opinion was mine and only playful hypothetical thinking,” Lindholm said. “It was just my opinion, not Capcom's. And my source is an independent third party.”
Nonetheless, it looks like at least as far as the Lee family estate is concerned, there’s no issue with Fei Long being in future Street Fighter games at the moment. It just depends on if Capcom wants to put the character back in the roster after his complete absence from Street Fighter 5.