Tekken fighting game series director Katsuhiro Harada wanted to add KFC founder and mascot Colonel Sanders as a fighter to the title. As revealed in an interview with The Gamer magazine, even that actively tried.
“I requested the use of Colonel Sanders and went to the main office in Japan,” Harada describes his experience with the Japanese management of KFC. From him, he said it just got a bad look and rejected his idea.
In the same interview, designer Michael Murray also commented on the situation. “He went to (knowledge) KFC and wanted to get Colonel Sanders. (…) They were not in favor of the idea,” he says. He adds that Colonel appeared in other games. “Maybe it was the thought of him fighting someone that was a problem for them,Murray thinks out loud.