I did this several months ago with the Smash Bros. Roster (which you can find here), but the roster was over half revealed at that point and there were a LOT more characters to work with in the Nintendo universe than with Street Fighter. Also, there were costumes and plenty of gender neutral characters (such as all of the Pokemon) to make the process a lot easier.
But I thought I'd give it a shot. So here's the rules, once again...
1) Street Fighter V is the first version of what is likely to be a multi-version fighting game. Some decry this as nickle and dimeing, but it's an effective way of keeping the competitive scene alive and interesting. Keeping this in mind, I've cut some pretty obvious choices (mostly male) in anticipation of more characters being added later.
2) That being said, I set a target of characters a little larger than most initial Street Fighter titles. Street Fighter IV, for example, had 25 characters by the time it hit consoles. I'm thinking of a roster of about 25 characters seems fair.
3) There will probably be some new characters added to the roster, but not too many. I think saying 3 new female characters and 2 new male characters is a little hopeful on the gender distribution, but not unreasonable.
4) Has to use the two characters announced (Chun-Li and Ryu)
5) The goal is to have a roster with 12 returning female characters and 13 returning male characters (15 female characters and 15 male characters overall).
6) No EX characters or other characters owned by companies outside of Capcom.
7) No characters that are Capcom characters that haven't appeared in a Street Fighter game.
8) I'm going off the theory that this is going to be a mixture of Street Fighter III & IV, taking place after IV and before III and seeing a mixture of those characters.
Okay, with that, here's the list I could come up with!
Showing 1-10 of 25 items
#1 - Ryu Gender: Male First Game: Street Fighter Status: Confirmed
#2 - Chun-Li Gender: Female First Game: Street Fighter II Status: Confirmed
#3 - Ken Gender: Male First Game: Street Fighter Status: Unconfirmed Notes: The tomato coloured, cocky American counterpart of Ryu's. He's changed just enough, especially in his normals, to not be exactly a clone of Ryu and it's great to get a similar character with a completely different playstyle, especially since Ryu is basically the template for the entire fighting game genre. Anyway, I think it's extremely likely we'll see Ken again right away.
#4 - Cammy Gender: Female First Game: Super Street Fighter II Status: Unconfirmed Notes: The second female playable character in the series and easily the second most popular female character behind Chun-Li. She's a staple in the series and nearly guaranteed.
#5 - Guile Gender: Male First Game: Street Fighter II Status: Unconfirmed Notes: The man with the second American national anthem. Guile is an extremely popular character in Street Fighter, both for his theme and turtle playstyle. He was replaced in SFIII by Remy, but I don't see the same happening here. I think it's pretty likely he'll be coming back.
#6 - Rose Gender: Female First Game: Street Fighter Alpha Status: Unconfirmed Notes: The third playable female in the series and the character of the current EVO champ. She plays a pretty heavy spacing and projectile game, but I think, with the mechanics so far, we could see some crazy things out of Rose. While not as guaranteed as Cammy or Chun, I think it's likely she'll be there.
#7 - Blanka Gender: Male First Game: Street Fighter II. Status: Unconfirmed Notes: Anyone who follows Street Fighter or even fighting games in general knows how much Ono loves Blanka. I don't see him retiring just yet.
#8 - Sakura Gender: Female First Game: Street Fighter Alpha 2 Status: Unconfirmed Notes: Sakura is a super popular character, having manga based off her, appearing in a ton of spin-offs and crossovers, and playing a big part in almost every game since her introduction. Notably she was absent in Street Fighter III, but I'm sure she'll be in there. Also, I think seeing Sakura a few years older, past high school and into adulthood, would be very interesting for both her character and her playstyle.
#9 - Zangief Gender: Male First Game: Street Fighter II Status: Unconfirmed Notes: It's a toss-up between Zangief and Hugo for the big grappler spot on this list, but with the unpopularity of Hugo recently (he was not well received in SFxT or Ultra), the design problems they had fitting him into SFIV, and the enduring popularity of Zangief over the years, I think we'll still be protecting Russia's skies when Street Fighter V launches.
#10 - Juri Gender: Female First Game: Super Street Fighter IV Status: Unconfirmed Notes: Probably the most popular addition to the Street Fighter IV roster, Juri's insane hybrid strategy of snapping from heavy rush-down to heavy keep away in an instant can really fit into any fighting game system. I'm not confident enough to say she'll make the roster for sure, but I can see her in SFV over any other original SFIV character.