KFC Won't Let Colonel Sanders Appear In Tekken

Tekken development chief Katsuhiro Harada has long dreamed of adding Kentucky Fried Chicken’s founder-turned-mascot Colonel Sanders to the long-running fighting game. But according to Harada, KFC isn’t interested in the crossover. And it seems unlikely that you’ll get a Waffle House stage, either.

Over the years, the Tekken franchise—a popular fighting game series that started in the ‘90s and is still going strong in 2024—has seen a fair share of odd cameo characters, including Negan from The Walking Dead, Noctis from Final Fantasy, and Akuma from Street Fighter. But Harada’s personal “dream” character of Colonel Sanders has yet to make an appearance—and based on how his meeting with KFC went, it seems like the fried chicken empire’s mascot will never trade blows with Heihachi Mishima or Kuma.

In an interview with The Gamer, Harada explained that “a long time ago” he wanted to do a KFC x Tekken crossover, saying: “I wanted to have Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken fight. So, I asked to use Colonel Sanders and [went] to the head office in Japan.”

This meeting didn’t go down well, with Harada saying KFC gave him “a bad look,” so he decided to give up on his dream cameo character. As for getting a Waffle House stage, something Tekken fans have jokingly asked about in the past, Harada said “It’s not something that we can accomplish on our own.” Waffle House would have to agree and seeing how KFC reacted, I’m not sure it will happen.

Harada talked about getting Colonel Sanders in Tekken before. In an interview in 2020, Harada reportedly mentioned going to KFC to try and “get Colonel Sanders.”

“KFC weren’t very open to the idea,” said Harada during the podcast appearance. “[Colonel Sanders] appeared in games after that. So maybe it was just him fighting against someone [that] was posing a problem for them. But it just goes to show how difficult these types of discussions are.”

In 2021, Harada once again talked about adding the Colonel to Tekken, explaining that the team has a plan for the mascot.

“Quite honestly, I dream of Colonel Sanders from KFC in Tekken. Together with Director Ikeda, we have an idea for this character,” explained Harada. “We know how to do it well. It will be really brilliant.”

“The marketing department, however, does not want to agree, because they think that players will not like it,” said Harada. “Everyone advises us against it at every turn. So if anyone from KFC reads this interview, please contact me!”

Meanwhile, KFC lets Colonel Sanders appear in Funko Fusion and a not-very-good dating sim meme game. The universe is often cruel and unfair.

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