Tekken Boss Katsuhiro Harada Actually Tried to Get Colonel Sanders as a Guest Character — But KFC Turned Him Down

Tekken development chief Katsuhiro Harada revealed he tried and failed to have Colonel Sanders added to the fighting game as a guest character.

“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.”

Unfortunately, Harada’s pitch was turned down with a “bad look.” Since then, Colonel Sanders actually did appear in a video game: I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator, a dating sim commissioned by KFC and released for free on Steam on September 24, 2019 as a bizarre promo for the fast food chain.

“[Harada] went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and tried to get Colonel Sanders,” game designer Michael Murray added. “They weren’t very open to the idea.

“[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.”

So, no Colonel Sanders. But what about that Waffle House stage Tekken fans are desperate for? “It’s not something that we can accomplish on our own,” Harada said, pointing to the need for Waffle House’s unlikely approval for such a DLC.

Still, Tekken 8 fans do have the game’s third DLC character, Heihachi Mishima, to look forward to. The once-dead fighting veteran joins the roster as part of the upcoming free story expansion for Tekken 8, titled Unforgotten Echoes.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.