Street Fighter is the number one movie in North America, but it’s sparked much debate about its goofy tone. Some fans of Capcom’s fighting game franchise had wanted something darker and more grounded than what they got, but according to the movie’s director, that was never on the cards.

Director Kitao Sakurai told The Hollywood Reporter that the studio behind the movie, Legendary, wanted something that he had become known for through the likes of The Eric Andre Show and Bad Trip: absurdity.

Sakurai said he'd never have got the job as writer and director if he had he pitched Legendary 'the Batman Begins of Street Fighter movies.'

“We, for sure, wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” he said. “The assignment specifically came about because of the spiritual nature of Street Fighter and the fact that it’s not gory. There’s a silliness to it, and there’s an absurdity to the world and the characters and how they interact. [Producer] Cale Boyter at Legendary really held the torch for this vision of Street Fighter that had a gonzo energy to it. I also love comedy and craziness and energy.

“Sometimes things don’t necessarily need to make sense for you to lean in and love them. That was a big lesson from The Eric Andre Show. There’s a quote from a famous stand-up comic who says that if you do a 60-minute stand-up special, not every minute needs to be hilarious and funny, but every minute needs to be interesting. So there can be elements that are so ridiculous they might not track narratively or make sense conceptually, but because they’re part of an overall energy and feeling, they fit.

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