• Mortal Kombat II opened to $61.5 million globally in its first weekend, making a third film all but certain
• Writer Jeremy Slater says he has “dozens” of characters planned across a potential six-film franchise
• Ermac, Shinnok, Kuai Liang’s Sub-Zero, Cyrax, and Tanya are among the biggest names still waiting for their live-action debut
• Slater confirmed Shinnok’s Amulet was deliberately seeded in MK2 to set up the Fallen Elder God’s arrival
• Liu Kang’s mysterious “death” in MK2 is being saved as a major story thread for the threequel

Mortal Kombat II has landed in theaters with a $61.5 million global opening weekend, and the franchise is clearly just getting started. The sequel brought Johnny Cage, Kitana, Quan Chi, Jade, Shao Kahn, and Baraka into the fold — plus resurrected Kano from the dead — but even with that packed roster, there’s a long list of iconic Kombatants who still haven’t gotten their moment on the big screen.

Writer Jeremy Slater, who grew up feeding quarters into Mortal Kombat arcade machines and now holds the keys to the entire film franchise, isn’t shy about his ambitions. Speaking with Variety, he laid it out plainly: “I have dozens of characters that I want to bring into live action. Some of them are on deck next, and some of them are being saved for a hypothetical 4, 5 or 6. In success, we will get to as many of the classics as we possibly can, but we always want to be careful to never overload the audience.”

A fourth, fifth, and sixth film. That’s the vision. And with Warner Bros. having greenlit Mortal Kombat III back in October 2025 — seven months before MK2 even hit theaters — and Slater already deep into a second draft of that script, the pipeline is very real. So who are the fan-favorites still waiting in the wings?

The Most Glaring Absence: Kuai Liang’s Sub-Zero

If there’s one character whose absence from Mortal Kombat II genuinely surprised fans, it’s Kuai Liang — the younger brother of Bi-Han and the Sub-Zero most people actually grew up loving. In the games, after Bi-Han was killed and became the undead wraith Noob Saibot, his brother stepped into the Sub-Zero mantle. He had the same ice powers but a fundamentally different soul — less cruel, more conflicted, and eventually one of the heroes.

The 2021 film gave us Bi-Han’s death at Scorpion’s hands as one of its standout moments. The sequel brought Bi-Han back as a shadow-wielding wraith. But Kuai Liang? Still nowhere to be seen. Given how central the Sub-Zero name is to the franchise’s identity, and how compelling the idea of Scorpion eventually forging an alliance with a new Sub-Zero could be, this feels like the most obvious move for Mortal Kombat III.

Cyrax, Sektor, and the Cyber Lin Kuei

Tied directly to Kuai Liang’s story are Cyrax and Sektor, the cybernetic assassins who represent one of the franchise’s most visually distinctive concepts. After Sub-Zero defected from the Lin Kuei clan over their decision to mechanize all of its members, some warriors — like Sektor — volunteered for the transformation. Others, like Cyrax, were turned into cyborgs against their will.

Cyrax’s arc is particularly rich: a warrior who loses their humanity, then fights to reclaim it. The connections to Sub-Zero, the Lin Kuei, and the broader lore make them a natural fit for wherever the franchise takes its ninja storyline next. The Mortal Kombat films have leaned heavily into fantasy so far — Jax’s robotic arms being the main sci-fi exception — so Cyrax and Sektor would bring something genuinely different to the screen. And given that the characters were partly inspired by Boba Fett and the Predator’s Yautja, there’s even room for Johnny Cage to riff on them in the way he dropped Lord of the Rings and Squid Game references in MK2.

Shinnok: The Villain Already Being Set Up

Of all the characters on this list, Shinnok is the one the films are most clearly building toward. A fallen Elder God banished to the Netherrealm for attempting to conquer Earthrealm, Shinnok is arguably the biggest villain in the entire franchise — a tier above even Shao Kahn. He’s the son of a Titan, the ruler of the Netherrealm, and in the games, it takes Raiden literally beheading him to stop his reign.

Mortal Kombat II made a point of featuring the Amulet of Shinnok as a key plot device — Shao used it to achieve immortality — and Slater confirmed to Variety that this was entirely intentional. “I can’t say when he’s coming, but we’re certainly always in conversation about what our plans for Shinnok are,” he said. “And those plans do start with the introduction of the Amulet in this movie.” The breadcrumb has been laid. The Fallen Elder God is coming.

Ermac: The Character Born From a Glitch

Ermac has one of the most unusual origin stories in gaming history. He began as an urban legend — fans spotted “ERMAC” in the code of the original Mortal Kombat and convinced themselves it was a secret red ninja, a counterpart to the yellow Scorpion, blue Sub-Zero, and green Reptile. In reality, it was short for “Error Macro,” a glitch notification. But the myth took on a life of its own, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 eventually made it official by adding Ermac as a secret character.

He’s been a franchise mainstay ever since — a being made up of the amalgamated souls of countless warriors slain in Outworld, bound and controlled by Shao Kahn. Telekinesis, teleportation, levitation, soul projectiles. And here’s what makes his film debut feel overdue: Mortal Kombat II opens with the brutal death of King Jerrod, Kitana’s father. In the lore, Jerrod’s soul is one of those trapped within Ermac. That’s not an accident. The groundwork is already there.

Tanya and the Edenia Angle

Tanya hasn’t appeared in as many games as some of the heavy hitters on this list, but she fills a specific and valuable narrative role — the traitor from within. Born in Edenia under Shao Kahn’s rule, she harbored a deep resentment toward Sindel and Kitana even after they reclaimed their kingdom. When Shinnok and Quan Chi came looking for a way into the realm, Tanya opened the door for them.

She also developed a close bond with Mileena — Kitana’s monstrous half-Tarkatan clone — and the two conspired together against their shared enemies. With Kitana now firmly established in the film universe, and Mileena’s absence from MK2 leaving fans wanting more of that twisted sisterly dynamic, Tanya slots in as the kind of complex antagonist who could add real dramatic texture to Mortal Kombat III. She’s not just a villain. She’s a personal betrayal.

Erron Black: The Wildcard

Erron Black is a newer addition to the franchise — he debuted in Mortal Kombat X — but he immediately became one of its most distinctive characters. An immortal gunslinger who made a deal with Shang Tsung for a piece of eternal life, Black has been walking the earth for around 150 years, accumulating the kind of hard-won expertise that makes him genuinely dangerous. Twin revolvers, rifles, blades. No magic, no cyborg tech. Just a man who’s had a century and a half to get very good at killing people.

In a franchise full of sorcerers and gods and four-armed monsters, there’s something almost refreshing about that. His signature Money Shot move — ricocheting a bullet off a coin to hit his target — is exactly the kind of stylized, crowd-pleasing moment that plays beautifully on screen. Slater’s vision of Mortal Kombat as New Line’s answer to Fast and Furious leaves plenty of room for a character like Black, who could slot naturally into any number of spinoff scenarios.

Nightwolf and the Matoka Legacy

Nightwolf has been part of the Mortal Kombat roster since the third game, and what makes the character particularly compelling for a film adaptation is the mythology around the name itself. In Mortal Kombat 11, Nightwolf isn’t just one person — it’s a mantle passed down through generations of the Matoka Tribe. Whoever carries the name inherits a host of abilities: a Tomahawk, powerful shamanic magic, and access to the memories and experiences of every Nightwolf who came before.

That’s a genuinely cinematic concept — a warrior who is simultaneously an individual and a living legacy. It also gives filmmakers real flexibility in how they introduce the character and which version of the story they want to tell.

What Comes Next

Mortal Kombat III is already in motion. Slater is close to finishing a second draft, and the studio’s enthusiasm is evident — WB has positioned Mortal Kombat alongside DC, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones as one of its core franchise assets. The first film’s lifetime gross was $84 million; MK2 crossed $60 million in its first week alone.

Several characters from the first two films are also in line for returns. Liu Kang’s fate at the end of MK2 — whether he died or ascended to another plane — is being deliberately left open. “What actually happened to him in that moment is absolutely a mystery that’s going to be explored in Mortal Kombat III,” Slater told Variety. Kabal, Reptile, Mileena, and Goro are all possibilities too, since as Slater put it, “death is never permanent” in this universe.

And then there’s Lewis Tan. Slater killed off Cole Young — the original-character POV lead from the first film — in the opening of MK2, acknowledging the character was a studio mandate that never quite fit. But he’s clearly not done with the actor himself: “That doesn’t mean you’re not going to see Lewis Tan again in some regards.”

The roster is deep. The plans are ambitious. And if the box office keeps cooperating, Mortal Kombat’s cinematic universe is only just beginning to fill out its character select screen.

The post MK Characters Still Missing From the Movies After MK 2 appeared first on Cream.

• Writer Jeremy Slater says not involving NetherRealm Studios was a major mistake on the first Mortal Kombat film
• Mortal Kombat 2 opened to a franchise-best $63 million globally, with $40 million domestically
• Producer Todd Garner publicly attacked critics before issuing an apology after the film’s strong debut
• The sequel currently holds a 65–66% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes but an impressive 89% audience score
• NetherRealm boss Ed Boon has confirmed a new Mortal Kombat game is in development

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.

The post Mortal Kombat 2 Writer Admits First Film’s Big Mistake appeared first on Cream.

• Writer Jeremy Slater says Cole Young’s death was driven by overwhelmingly negative fan reaction to the character after the first film
• Liu Kang’s surprise death was designed to shock hardcore fans who know him as the canonical tournament winner
• Tremor was nearly in the film before being swapped out for Sindel, who Slater says made the story “more visceral”
• Slater confirmed he has no plans to resurrect Goro, citing the challenges of CGI monster fights vs. human-on-human combat
• Mortal Kombat 2 opened to $63 million globally and holds an 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes

Major spoilers for Mortal Kombat 2 below.

Cole Young never had the easiest relationship with Mortal Kombat fans. When Lewis Tan’s original character — invented specifically for the 2021 film rather than drawn from the games — was introduced as the first movie’s protagonist, the response from the hardcore faithful was, to put it gently, not warm. So when Mortal Kombat 2 opened with Cole getting his head crushed by Shao Kahn in one of the film’s very first fights, it wasn’t exactly a bolt from the blue for anyone who’d been paying attention online.

But it was entirely intentional — and writer Jeremy Slater is happy to explain exactly why.

“The idea was very much we need some deaths that are going to shock everybody,” Slater told GamesRadar+ exclusively. “I love Lewis Tan. I think Lewis is the best, but Cole was a character that the hardcore fans did not respond to in the first movie, and they were very vocal about that, and very vocal about calling for his head. So Cole was a great example of a character where killing him would shock the casual fans, the people who are not terminally online and just went to see the movie and enjoyed it. It’s going to be a really shocking moment for them, but the hardcore fans are expecting him to die.”

It’s a calculated play — and an unusually candid one. Slater, who wasn’t involved in writing the first film, came into the sequel knowing exactly what the fanbase felt about Cole and used that knowledge as a storytelling tool. Give the hardcore fans what they’ve been demanding, and you still get a genuine shock moment for the casual audience who just showed up for the action.

Liu Kang’s Death Was a Different Kind of Shock

The flip side of that equation is Liu Kang. Where Cole’s death lands differently depending on your level of fandom, Liu Kang’s demise during the film’s climax — which clears the path for Kitana to take her revenge on Shao Kahn and win the tournament — hits the hardcore crowd in a completely different way.

“You contrast [Cole’s death] with someone like Liu Kang, and there’s a character that is not going to be that shocking for the casual fans, but for the hardcore fans who know that canonically, Liu Kang is the guy who wins the tournament, Liu Kang is the guy who kills Shao Kahn — that is a shocking moment that tells you, ‘Oh, the gloves are off now. Nobody is safe,'” Slater explained to Total Film. “We have now diverged from canon in a way that leaves the ultimate fate of the tournament up in the air.”

“So it was really about figuring out who are those deaths that are going to have the most impact, that are going to really drive the story forward, and who is going to surprise the most amount of people, and then just trying to find a satisfying balance.”

Of course, death in the Mortal Kombat universe comes with an asterisk. The presence of necromancer Quan Chi means the door is never fully closed — Sonya Blade has already made it clear that forcing Quan Chi to resurrect their fallen friends is the plan going into the next film. Slater acknowledged as much: “Knowing that we are Mortal Kombat, we always do have the ability to resurrect fallen characters or bring back actors we like in different ways. So even though some of those characters I love quite a bit, and love the actors playing them, some of those people who got a little bit less to do this time around, it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the last time we’re going to see them in a Mortal Kombat movie.”

The Character Who Almost Made the Cut — and the One Who Definitely Won’t Be Back

Alongside the deaths, Slater also opened up about a character who never made it to the screen at all. Speaking to GamesRadar, he revealed that Tremor — the geokinetic ninja with rock-and-metal powers — was originally written into the script to fight Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and die in the process.

“We almost had Tremor in the movie at one point for the Sonya fight, just because I’ve always liked Tremor and he’s got really fun, really cool powers,” Slater said. But the character just wasn’t clicking on the page. “It was one of those smack my own forehead moments of like, Tremor wasn’t working because I wasn’t able to devote enough time to sort of sell him as a character.”

The solution turned out to be sitting right in front of him: Sindel, Kitana’s mother, played by Ana Thu Nguyen. “Once we swapped [Tremor] out [for] Sindel, it immediately became more visceral, and there’s just more skin in the game. And Sindel’s powers were so much fun that it felt like she belonged in that pit of spikes in a way that never felt right with Tremor.”

As for who won’t be coming back at all — Slater was equally direct in an exclusive conversation with ComicBook. Goro, the four-armed CGI behemoth from the 2021 film, is off the table. “I don’t know if I would necessarily be chomping at the bit to sort of resurrect them, just because they weren’t my version of the characters, and they don’t necessarily seem relevant or necessary to the stories that I’m trying to tell,” he said. “Goro is a good example, just because I think one of the things we have sort of discovered along the way is that watching two human martial artists fight is a lot of fun, and watching people shadowbox CGI monsters is not as fun.”

It’s a philosophy that seems to be working. Mortal Kombat 2 earned $40 million domestically and $23 million internationally in its opening weekend, putting it just $21 million away from surpassing the entire box office run of the first film after a single weekend. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes sits at 89% — a significant jump from its predecessor — suggesting that leaning into human-versus-human combat and giving the fanbase the character moments they actually wanted was the right call.

Whether Cole Young stays dead, or Quan Chi has other ideas, remains part of the fun heading into whatever comes next. But for now, Slater seems pretty comfortable with the choices he made — and so does the audience.

The post Mortal Kombat 2 Writer Explains Why Cole Young Had to Die appeared first on Cream.

• Mortal Kombat 2 is out and critics are largely impressed, with Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage earning particular praise
• Video game co-creator Ed Boon makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo as a bartender early in the film
• The sequel cleverly sidesteps the first movie’s biggest problem — original character Cole Young — in a surprisingly elegant way
• Director Simon McQuoid returns alongside nearly the full original cast, with Karl Urban joining as fan-favorite Johnny Cage
• The film draws an unexpected spiritual parallel to Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep in how it handles dual-sequel storytelling

Twenty-four years after Mortal Kombat: Annihilation left the franchise in ruins, the 2021 reboot finally gave fans something worth showing up for. Now its sequel has arrived — and Mortal Kombat 2 isn’t just a follow-up. It’s a genuine course correction, a crowd-pleaser loaded with fan service, and proof that this franchise has finally figured out what it wants to be.

Director Simon McQuoid is back, nearly the entire cast returns, and Karl Urban steps in as Johnny Cage — arguably the most beloved character in the entire game series. Early reactions left critics genuinely stunned, even as some noted its rougher edges. But in a franchise built on outlandish fatalities and gleeful absurdity, rough edges kind of come with the territory.

How the Sequel Handles Cole Young — and Why It Works

The 2021 film introduced Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan, as a brand-new non-canon character. He was never in the games. And the movie made him so powerful — he defeated Goro, after all — that writing him out or sidelining him in a sequel built around actual game characters would have been nearly impossible without it feeling cheap.

Mortal Kombat 2 found a genuinely clever solution. Rather than kill Cole off or quietly bench him, the film puts him directly against main antagonist Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) — immediately after Shao Kahn has been made immortal by the Amulet of Shinnok. Cole can fight hard, look credible, and still lose without it feeling like a betrayal of what the first movie established. It’s the kind of elegant narrative problem-solving that sequels rarely bother with.

The film also keeps certain elements from the 2021 movie — like the arcana superpowers — while not leaning too hard on them. Johnny Cage gets his version of the power. The rest of the ensemble largely moves forward without it dominating the story.

Ed Boon’s Cameo Is the One You Don’t Want to Miss

Franchise cameos are basically expected at this point, but Mortal Kombat 2 sneaks in one that’s easy to blow past if you’re not paying attention. Early in the film, Johnny Cage has turned down Lord Raiden’s (Tadanobu Asano) offer to join Earth’s fighters and is drinking away his feelings at his regular bar. The man pouring his drinks? Ed Boon — co-creator of the Mortal Kombat video game series and an executive producer on the film.

It’s a fittingly low-key appearance for someone whose fingerprints are all over this universe. Boon is the voice behind Scorpion’s iconic “Get over here!” battle cry, and beyond Mortal Kombat, he also developed the DC fighting game series Injustice. Slipping him in as a bartender — present but not spotlighted — is exactly how a cameo like this should work.

The Doctor Sleep Connection Nobody Saw Coming

Here’s the more unexpected piece of film criticism swirling around Mortal Kombat 2: it pulls off something that Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep did, and does it surprisingly well.

Mortal Kombat 2 is technically a sequel to the 2021 reboot. But thanks to its tournament structure, its visual callbacks, and a certain gleeful cheesiness in its DNA, it also functions as a spiritual sequel to the original 1995 film — the one that still sits at the top of the live-action video game movie rankings. It captures that older movie’s atmosphere in a way that feels intentional rather than accidental, weaving in 1995-era character beats and visual choices alongside the smoother continuation of the 2021 story.

Doctor Sleep did something similar — serving as a sequel to both Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining and Stephen King’s original novel, which are famously quite different works. Being a genuine continuation of two distinct, sometimes contradictory things is a difficult trick. Mortal Kombat 2 pulls it off.

The Fights Are the Point — and They Deliver

No one is walking into Mortal Kombat 2 for the monologues. The film lives and dies on its action sequences, and by most accounts, they’re among the best the franchise has put on screen. The movie follows the game’s tournament format faithfully while making sure no character exits without at least one meaningful fight. There’s genuine variety here too — deliberately over-the-top superpower battles sit alongside grittier, harder-hitting exchanges where every landed strike feels like it costs something.

The dumb moments are real, too, and worth acknowledging. This is a franchise that once produced the line “too bad you… will die!” The sequel has its own head-scratching beats that will make even hardcore fans pause. But that’s always been part of the deal with Mortal Kombat. The franchise has never pretended to be something it isn’t — and after nearly three decades of trying to figure out how to translate these games to film, it’s finally leaning into that with confidence.

For fans who want to extend the experience, the best movies like Mortal Kombat stretch well beyond the franchise itself — and the Doctor Sleep parallel is worth exploring for anyone curious about how sequels can honor multiple predecessors at once. Meanwhile, the original 1995 film remains essential viewing — and the animated Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge is the dark horse recommendation that keeps coming up for a reason.

Karl Urban as Johnny Cage was always going to be a selling point. Turns out the movie around him earned it.

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