Mortal Kombat Sequel Just Confirmed A Key Piece Of Talent
"Mortal Kombat" is a franchise known for colorful characters, over-the-top violence, and memorable lines ("Get over here," anyone?). Luckily for fans all over the world, the 2021 live-action "Mortal Kombat" film delivered on all of these levels, with a story that follows the original character Cole Young (Lewis Tan) as he is recruited by the God of Thunder Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) in order to fight in a tournament that will determine the fate of two different worlds.
However, despite being named "Mortal Kombat," the actual tournament does not occur in the movie — because the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han) attempts to assassinate Earth's champions. The movie ends with Shang Tsung defeated, but the Mortal Kombat tournament must still happen, creating a near-perfect setup for a sequel.
"Mortal Kombat" proved to be a huge success for HBO Max, and as reported by Movie Web, WarnerMedia executive vice president Brad Wilson said of the movie, "Mortal Kombat was an interesting title for us, because I will say that while we expected it to do well, we did not expect it to do as well as it did. It's been one of our top assets on the platform." In January 2022, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that "Mortal Kombat" was going to get a sequel, with Jeremy Slater of "Moon Knight" fame writing the script, and many of the original cast members expected to return.
However, it seems as if another key component in the production of "Mortal Kombat" has just fallen into place, and the news should delight fans.
The director from Mortal Kombat has been confirmed to be returning
As confirmed by Deadline, it looks the original director for "Mortal Kombat," Simon McQuoid, will be returning for the upcoming sequel. Considering the response to the 2021 film, it makes perfect sense as to why the director would be tapped again. Several plot lines from the first movie were not resolved — like the status of the tournament which determines the fate of Earth and Outworld. The film also teased the potential for future appearances of fan favorite characters like Johnny Cage.
Speaking with Coming Soon in June 2021, McQuoid was asked what the future has in store for the series, and why the tournament was not featured in "Mortal Kombat," to which he replied, "The tournament is both an opportunity and also a constriction in some ways. There's something about the idea of a tournament film. We knew it was a key ingredient into 'Mortal Kombat,' obviously, but it really starts to inform and build your film construct, heavily, that it was too powerful an ingredient for the story structure."
He continued, "We could go there, potentially. It's part of the Mortal Kombat DNA so it's worth considering, but I don't really know. The games have sort of moved away from that anyway. It's better expanding than constricting."
With these comments in mind, it seems like leaving the tournament out from "Mortal Kombat" was a conscious decision, but it is definitely something they understand the importance of. Whether or not we see an organized contest of fights in "Mortal Kombat 2" is anybody's guess, but at least fans now know that the same director will be involved, and that there is a consideration regarding the tournament that will dictate the future of Earth.