Once upon a time, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada asked, uh, KFC, if he could put Colonel Sanders into the classic fighting game series

Tekken has had a few licensed characters over the years, but apparently series director Katsuhiro Harada once asked if Colonel Sanders could be in it.

Noctis, Geese Howard, Akuma - these are all guest characters that have appeared in Tekken, all of which generally make some amount of sense (they do all share the fact that they're all video game characters, at the very least). Sure, The Walking Dead's Negan Smith is a bit of an odd one, but hey, the vibes are more or less right. You know who would be incredibly out of place though? KFC's Colonel Sanders, and yet somewhere along the line director Katsuhiro Harada wanted just that, and even went so far as to speak to the fried chicken producer itself in Japan.

Harada recently spoke with TheGamer, where he shared this strange little fact, saying, "A long time ago, I wanted to have Colonel Sanders from Kentucky Fried Chicken fight. So, I asked to use Colonel Sanders and go to the head office in Japan." The game developer explains he was given a "bad look" and the idea was declined, which isn't really all that much of a surprise, honestly.

Tekken designer Michael Murray, who often translates for Harada, further explained that "[Harada] went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and tried to get Colonel Sanders. [...] 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."

The Colonel did eventually appear in his own game, a dating simulator no less, I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin' Good Dating Simulator, and KFC even made its own gaming console, so maybe Harada would have an easier time these days (he really shouldn't put the Colonel in Tekken, though).