Everyone knows a battle in Mortal Kombat can’t end in round one. There needs to be at least a round two and now, thanks to New Line Cinema and writer Jeremy Slater, there probably will be.
Deadline reports that the writer behind Marvel’s upcoming Moon Knight and Fox’s excellent series The Exorcist has signed on to write Mortal Kombat II, a sequel to last year’s reboot from director Simon McQuoid. A director has not been set and, according to the trade, no deals are in place for any potential returning stars, but the wheels are in motion.
The 2021 film (which we really liked but the overall reaction was decidedly more mixed) rebooted the 1990s franchise based on the massively popular fighting game. Mortal Kombat followed a wholly new character in Cole Young (played by Lewis Tan) who realises he’s been marked to combat in this ancient tournament. After lots and lots of battling with Sub Zero, Raiden, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Jax, Sonya Blade and the rest, Cole and the good guys win, but he can’t rest. The film ends with the tease that new warrior are out there, such as Hollywood superstar Johnny Cage.
When Mortal Kombat was released, producers dreamed of it becoming a much bigger thing. “Our goal and our prayer is that this movie does well enough and we’ve set it up enough and is satisfying enough for both the fans and people who don’t know anything about Mortal Kombat,” Producer Todd Garner, who will be back this time, previously told Gizmodo in March last year.” “[Well enough] that they’re going to allow us at some point to sit with [creators] Ed [Boon] and John [Tobias] and all the Warner Bros. execs and put a big whiteboard up like Kevin Feige did and map out the universe. Map out years and years of this.”’
All of which starts with a single sequel. And Slater now has the task of bringing that to life.