Tekken boss tried to convince KFC's Colonel Sanders that he should join the roster. But the chicken superpower refused: 'They were not very open to the concept'

A fried chicken conglomerate almost scuppered a collaboration between a fighting-game franchise and a worldwide fast food mascot. I'm talking about Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada and his attempt to bring KFC mascot Colonel Sanders as a guest fight. This pairing had so much potential, but it was not meant to be.

Harada told TheGamer in an interview that he had reached out to KFC while developing an unspecified Tekken title.

Harada said, "I wanted to fight Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken for a long time." "So, I requested to use Colonel Sanders. I went to the head office in Japan." Harada claimed that he went to the KFC headquarters and received a "bad glance" before being shot down.

In the same TheGamer article, Tekken 8 designer Michael Murray explained why the fried-chicken restaurant, which is a cultural and physical presence in Japan, may not have been willing work with them.

"[Colonel Sanders] was in the games after that." Murray said that it could have been just him fighting someone who was causing a problem. "But it just shows how difficult these kinds of discussions are."

Murray may have been referring to I Love You, Col. Sanders!, an official KFC dating simulator/advert-game that the company released free of charge in 2019. Murray is confused: fawning over and smooching with Colonel Sanders is acceptable, but trading blows against Heihachi mishima is too far? I don't want to give a shout-out to Burger King, which is objectively the worst fast food burger. But at least the Sneak King wasn't a fool when the franchise decided to spend marketing dollars to turn its mascot into an videogame star.

Harada may have been dealing with a less-advanced chicken regime, but it doesn't sound like the creative director plans to try again. KFC's loss.