KFC Gaming Plans to Announce Tekken Partnership

Colonel Sanders appearing in Tekken simply isn't happening, according to Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada, even though he's fantasized about it for a few years now.

Harada's Colonel Sanders x Tekken Request Rejected By KFCHarada Also Rejected by His Own Superiors

Colonel Sanders, the founder and branded mascot of fast food chicken joint Kentucky Fried Chicken, has long been a personality that Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada wanted to appear in the fighting game franchise. However, according to Harada in a recent interview, Kentucky Fried Chicken, along with Harada's own bosses, have shot down his request. "A long time ago, I wanted to have Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken fight," Harada told The Gamer. "So, I asked to use Colonel Sanders and go to the head office in Japan."

This isn't the first time Harada has talked about wanting the Colonel to appear in the Tekken series. Harada had previously said in an old episode on his YouTube channel that he'd love to the Kentucky Fried Chicken icon as a guest fighter in Tekken. Harada additionally shared that he received a "bad look," when his Tekken x Colonel Sanders dreams were denied. So, fans shouldn't expect any Kentucky Fried Chicken crossover to happen in Tekken 8 for the foreseeable future.

Game designer Michael Murray went into further detail about Harada's exchange with KFC in the interview with The Gamer. Apparently, Harada had personally reached out to KFC to try to get Colonel Sanders, but "they weren't very open to the idea," Murray said. "[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 previous interviews, Harada would profess that he had "dreamed about" adding Colonel Sanders in Tekken if he had complete freedom to do so. "Quite honestly, I dream of Colonel Sanders from KFC in Tekken. Together with Assistant Director Ikeda, we have an idea for this character," said Harada. "We know how to do it well. It will be really brilliant." Though, it seemed that KFC's marketing department wasn't as enthusiastic about such a crossover as the Tekken director. "The marketing department, however, does not want to agree, because they think that players will not like it." Harada added, "Everyone advises us against it at every turn. So if anyone from KFC reads this interview, please contact me!"

Over the years, the Tekken franchise has been able to pull off some pretty impressive character crossovers, such as Akuma from Street Fighter, Final Fantasy's Noctis, and even Negan from The Walking Dead series. But apart from Colonel Sanders and KFC, Harada had also considered the idea of adding another well-known food chain in Tekken—Waffle House, which also doesn't seem likely to happen. "It's not something that we can accomplish independently," Harada previously said regarding fans' demand for Waffle House to appear in the game. Still, fans can look forward to the return of the legendary Heihachi Mishima, brought back from the dead as the game’s third DLC character.