Tekken Boss Once Tried to Add KFC’s Colonel Sanders as a Playable Fighter

Katsuhiro Harada, the longtime director of the Tekken fighting game series, says that he once tried to add KFC mascot/founder Colonel Sanders as a playable fighter in a previous installment. While the idea might sound preposterous at face value, the Tekken franchise has long featured characters that one wouldn’t initially expect. In Tekken 7, both Noctis from Final Fantasy XV and Negan from The Walking Dead joined the roster as DLC. Clearly, though, the prospect of Colonel Sanders joining the fray was a bit too far-fetched. 

In a conversation with TheGamer, Harada explained that he once went to Kentucky Fried Chicken’s offices in Japan and tried to have a discussion with those in charge about bringing Colonel Sanders to Tekken. Harada said that he was given a “bad look” for the idea and was quickly shot down. The story was elaborated upon by Tekken 8 designer Michael Murray, who used the tale as an example of why the long-requested Waffle House stage that fans want to see added is hard to make happen. 

“[Harada] went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and tried to get Colonel Sanders. 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.”

Strangely, KFC might be more open than ever before to having Colonel Sanders show up in Tekken. In recent years, the fast food chain started tethering itself more directly to games by starting a “KFC Gaming” brand. This went on to spawn a dating sim centered around Colonel Sanders called I Love You, Colonel Sanders! which was surprisingly well received on Steam. 

For the most part, this focus on gaming content at KFC seems to have now dried up, which means that the company might still no longer be open to a collab with Tekken. Still, the crossover sounds more plausible now than it once did, so perhaps Harada should make another trip to KFC’s offices to try once again.