Capcom's given us a peek behind the development curtain and revealed a handful of characters who didn't make it into Street Fighter 5.

Street Fighter 5 director Takayuki Nakayama took to Capcom's website to discuss the likes of Fighting Literary Master, Fighting President, Clumsy Cutie and more.

Fighting Literary Master is my favourite. Here's a description from Nakayama:

You need wits, not only power, in a fight! He's an old man that constantly grumbles to himself. The pen is not mightier than the sword in this game, however. Next!

Fighting Literary Master reminds me of my wonderful colleague Christian Donlan, who provides the picture, below, as a point of comparison. Donlan, too, is a fighting literary master, as you can see by the way he stands fearlessly in front of a rabid bear.

I also like Fighting President, although he looks very sad.

Perhaps it was for the best that Clumsy Cutie didn't make it into the game. Here's the description:

When this cutie starts fighting, her clothes start becoming more tattered due to her clumsiness. Uses tools when fighting. This idea came about when we were coming up for designs for Laura. Next!

And then we have Soccer Fighter, who would have been "the Brazilian male representative". But he was too similar to Roberto from Rival Schools, so Capcom cut him.

All these characters would have been brand new to the series. Street Fighter 5 ended up with 16 characters at launch, of which four were brand new: FANG, Laura, Necalli and Rashid.

"Considering the number of characters we had to work with, we decided to go with 16 characters that were easier to deal with," Nakayama explained.

"While these characters unfortunately didn't make the cut, maybe they'll make an appearance somewhere!?"

Let's keep an eye on the arena backgrounds, then!