Vidyut Jammwal is already stretching into character. The actor, who plays Dhalsim in the upcoming Street Fighter movie, just dropped a workout video showing off the flexibility and martial arts training that make it obvious why casting landed on him. Per Moneycontrol, the video blends yoga flows with hard martial arts work, and the man moves like his limbs genuinely have an extra few feet of range.

If you know Dhalsim, the joke writes itself. He's a yoga master rooted in Indian yogic tradition, and he's had one of the most instantly recognizable silhouettes in fighting games since the early days of the series. Casting an actual martial artist with a real yoga practice, instead of just CG-ing the stretchy limbs onto whoever, is the kind of choice that gives me a little hope for this adaptation.

Hope is a risky thing with video game movies, though, because they've burned us plenty of times over the years. Jammwal putting in visible physical work for a role that could have been pure effects wizardry says something about how seriously the production is treating the property. That's usually a good sign.

Dhalsim occupies a special spot in the hearts of a lot of fighting game fans, myself included. He's been stretch-kicking people across the screen for decades, and he's one of those characters where, if you grew up maining him or losing to him, the casting choice just matters more. Getting an actor who can actually move like that, rather than someone showing up for a motion capture payday, hits different.

I've written before about how the fighting game community is one of the most welcoming corners of gaming once you get past the skill wall, and Street Fighter is the reason that wall exists in the first place. So this movie carries a weird emotional weight for those of us who've spent decades in that world.

Will the movie nail the tone? No idea, and I'm not going to pretend a workout video answers that question. But watching Jammwal do his best human-pretzel routine ahead of release has me quietly optimistic. If you've got a main in Street Fighter, you get it.