We know that the Mortal Kombat reboot kind of had a hard time during release since it was around the tail-end of COVID, but the movie managed to be successful enough to warrant a sequel.
That being said, the first movie wasn’t perfect, and here was still a lot of issues; but it looks like the sequel is going to be addressing those problems and then some.
In a recent talk with ComicBook, writer Jeremy Slater has confirmed that Mortal Kombat II will be ‘funnier and bigger’ than the first movie—also, there will actually be a tournament this time. “I am so excited for people to see the movie. It’s been done for a while,” says Slater, “I have been to those test screenings, which are full of Mortal Kombat fans, and watching them react to it the way I reacted to Avengers: Endgame. They were cheering and jumping out of their seats. Every joke is landing and they are loving it.”
With the original games being considered as homages to B-level martial arts movies, a lot of fans had criticized the reboot for ‘taking itself too seriously.’ With the new tone and inclusion of Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), it was probably easier for the sequel to actually be more lighthearted alongside the gore and violence.
As far as the tournament goes, it’s unclear if this one will be run by Shang Tsung or Shao Khan, but Slater did say that they didn’t want to hold on to that until the final movie. “I was adamant that we had to have this tournament in the movie. We can’t make people wait another movie and then be like, ‘Come back for the finale.’ It was finding a structure to make the tournament as satisfying as you want it to be because this had years of build-up,” says Slater.
Fingers crossed they manage to pull it off. Catch Mortal Kombat II when it comes to cinemas on Oct. 24.
