The voice actress for Chun-Li, one of the longtime Street Fighter mascot characters, appears to have changed. Images from Street Fighter 6 show that the character is now voiced by actress Jennie Kwan, who some might know best as Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender. She replaces Laura Bailey, who voiced the Chinese martial artist in the previous two numbered Street Fighter games, as well as Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and several animated projects.
The specific reason for the change isn’t yet clear. Voice actors change between games, movies, TV series, and more all the time for a multitude of reasons both public and private. The end result, however, is that Chun-Li is now voiced by an Asian actress in the English version of a mainline (i.e. directly numbered) Street Fighter sequel for the first time ever.
Chun-Li’s change in voice wasn’t specifically addressed in the announcement trailer during the PlayStation “State of Play” livestream earlier this week, but you can see it for yourself on publisher Capcom’s official Street Fighter 6 website. The basic biographies for announced characters in the upcoming game are accompanied by the names of the voice actors for each cast member. You can actually hear Kwan as Chun-Li for yourself by clicking on the name — it plays an audio file that currently just repeats, “Ready? Then show me!”
Not every character believed to be in Street Fighter 6 appears on this website, though players have been picking apart yesterday’s trailer to find secret “reveals” of further entries on the roster.
Besides The Last Airbender, Kwan has also appeared in a variety of video games since 2008, such as an Avatar tie-in game in her staple role as Suki. She most recently appeared in secondary roles in 2021 in both Lost Judgment and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles. Kwan also plays multiple minor characters in the English dub of the Demon Slayer anime.
You can find all our other thoughts on the recent State of Play by checking out our roundup post of the livestream right here!
