Mortal Kombat 2 Writer Admits First Film’s Big Mistake

Mortal Kombat 2 is having a moment — and the people behind it are being unusually candid about what went wrong the first time around. Writer Jeremy Slater, who came on board for the sequel, told Forbes that failing to loop in the game’s actual creators was one of the biggest missteps of the 2021 original.

“One of the mistakes we wanted to rectify from that first movie was not having NetherRealm Studios as creatively involved as they could have been,” Slater said. For the sequel, that changed entirely — the developers were “involved every step of the way.”

It’s a telling admission. Despite NetherRealm and Warner Bros. Pictures both sitting under the Warner Bros. umbrella, the studio that has been living and breathing Mortal Kombat since acquiring the franchise from Midway was essentially kept at arm’s length during production of the first film. The result was a movie that felt like it had been assembled using Wikipedia research rather than genuine franchise knowledge.

“You can go on Wikipedia and ask, ‘What are the most popular stages? What are the best finishing moves?’” Slater explained. “But it’s so different to be able to go directly to the horse’s mouth, the guy who has been interacting with the fan base for 34 years.” Having that direct line gave Slater what he described as a “sort of cheat sheet available anytime we had questions about the lore and mythology.”

A Franchise-Best Opening Weekend

The numbers suggest it paid off. Mortal Kombat 2 pulled in $40 million domestically in its opening weekend and $63 million globally — a significant leap over the original’s $23 million domestic debut, which was, to be fair, released during the pandemic against a $55 million budget. For context, the original 1995 Mortal Kombat film also opened to $23 million, and 1997’s Annihilation managed just $16 million. By every historical measure, this is the biggest opening the franchise has ever seen.

Critics are warmer on it too. The sequel currently sits at around 65–66% on Rotten Tomatoes, roughly 10 points higher than the first film. The audience score tells an even stronger story: 89%, compared to 85% for the original. Fans, clearly, are happy.

What’s actually working, according to multiple reviews, is a shift in focus. The first film’s original creation Cole Young — a blank-slate protagonist invented specifically to onboard newcomers — dominated the 2021 movie to the frustration of longtime fans. In the sequel, he’s sidelined almost immediately, and in a move that apparently earned quiet cheers in at least a few cinemas, he meets a very definitive end courtesy of Shao Kahn and a sledgehammer on the Dead Pool stage. The film moves on with barely a shrug, which feels entirely intentional.

In his place, the sequel leans into Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage and Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana — characters with actual history in the franchise. Rudolph in particular has been highlighted as a genuine standout, with Kitana getting one of the film’s more emotionally coherent arcs. Urban’s Cage is more divisive; some feel the film never fully lets him be the chaotic, lovable disaster the games made him, while others are simply glad he’s there at all.

The criticisms that do exist tend to center on pacing. With Mortal Kombat lore being as sprawling as it is — Outworld politics, Netherrealm intrigue, Sub-Zero, Noob Saibot, Sindel, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung — the film has been accused of speedrunning its own mythology. Characters like Sindel, one of the franchise’s most iconic fighters, get shortchanged. Her legendary hair attack? Nowhere to be seen. Casual viewers unfamiliar with the games may find themselves lost before the first act is over.

Still, the consensus is clear: Mortal Kombat 2 is a meaningful step forward. The gore delivers, the fatalities land, and there are stretches — particularly a Kung Lao vs. Liu Kang sequence that multiple reviewers have singled out — where the film genuinely clicks into something special.

Producer Todd Garner’s Critic Controversy

Not everyone connected to the film handled the mixed reviews with grace, at least not initially. Producer Todd Garner took to social media after the film’s early scores came in, writing: “Some of these reviews are cracking me up. It’s clear they have never played the game and have no idea what the fans want or ANY of the rules/canon of Mortal Kombat. One reviewer was mad that a guy ‘had a laser eye!’ Why the fuck do we still allow people that don’t have any love for the genre review these movies! Baffling.”

The post drew immediate pushback, with many pointing out that audiences shouldn’t need to have played a video game to follow — or fairly critique — a film adaptation. After the strong opening weekend numbers came in, Garner walked it back.

“I wanted to address a comment I made regarding some of the critical responses to our movie,” he wrote. “I realize that, in my eagerness to defend the people who worked so hard on this film, I lost sight of the fact that our job is to create the best possible movie — not only for the fans, but for anyone coming to the cinema. Once that movie is out in the world, no one is above criticism. For that, I apologize.”

It’s worth noting Garner isn’t alone in this particular frustration. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto made similar waves recently when he called it “truly baffling” that reviewers were negative about The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and was similarly criticized for implying critics should be cheerleaders for the industry rather than independent voices.

What Comes Next for the Franchise

If Mortal Kombat 2’s final act is any indication, a third film is already being set up. Slater says his dream is that NetherRealm remains “this creatively involved with every installment of Mortal Kombat going forward because they are the lifeblood of what we’re doing here.”

On the game side, NetherRealm boss Ed Boon confirmed during a recent interview — timed, naturally, to the film’s release — that a new Mortal Kombat game is in development following Mortal Kombat 1’s successful run of 8 million copies sold. He also teased that the studio is “definitely doing more” beyond Mortal Kombat, which has predictably reignited speculation about a long-awaited Injustice 3. Whether that other project surfaces before or after the next MK game remains anyone’s guess.

There’s also an amusing naming problem on the horizon: with a movie called Mortal Kombat 2 now in theaters, and an original arcade game called Mortal Kombat II already a piece of gaming history, NetherRealm is going to have to get creative with whatever they call the sequel to Mortal Kombat 1. Three projects sharing the same title might be a fatality the franchise can’t survive.

For now, though, the movie is in theaters and the franchise is in better shape than it’s been in decades. As Slater sees it, the secret was simple: actually talk to the people who made the thing.