Tekken 8 Adds Roger Jr. on November 17 and Reveals Baki the Grappler’s Yujiro Hanma

Tekken 8 is getting Roger Jr. on November 17, with a Baki the Grappler crossover lined up for the winter. Bandai Namco revealed both during EVO France 2026 this weekend.

The boxing-kangaroo Roger Jr. lands November 17 for everyone and November 12 for Season 3 Character Pass owners, per the EVO France trailer and Gematsu’s report on the announcement. The EVO X account posted a short confirmation on Sunday: “Roger Jr. hops into TEKKEN 8 on November 17th!” Gematsu’s account gives the November 12 early-access date for Season 3 Pass holders. Push Square, which ran a deeper report from the EVO France stage, also lists the November 12 / November 17 split.

The bigger surprise is the first proper look at the Baki the Grappler crossover. The EVO France trailer shows Yujiro Hanma, Baki’s overpowered father, joining Tekken 8 in the winter. Push Square’s report describes him as “sinewy and repulsive.” A fuller moveset reveal is on the schedule for the TEKKEN World Tour Finals on January 17, 2027.

Roger Jr. closes out Season 3 for the Bandai Namco fighter. The season already added Kunimitsu (June 2026) and Bob (August 2026). The Baki crossover isn’t part of the Season 3 pass. It’s a separate, free update that will ship in the winter window. Season 4 is the next big question; nothing has been confirmed yet.

Our read: A kangaroo with boxing gloves and an anime legend who bites people’s faces in Tekken is exactly the kind of crossover the EVO audience asks for. Putting Yujiro in as a free update, not a paid pass entry, is the friendlier move. Bandai Namco gets a spike of new players for the crossover, then the pass holders still get a fully-fleshed Season 4 in 2027. It also continues a fall that’s been a lot for the fighting-game genre: BlazBlue: Central Fiction landed on PS5 with rollback netcode on October 10, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves added Tekken 8’s Reina as its final Season 3 DLC in December, and Dead by Daylight’s NieR: Automata crossover shipped in early October. Watch the November 12 / 17 launch for the player count; that will tell you how much Baki hype has translated into actual Tekken 8 buyers.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report