Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath Director Reveals Why We Haven’t Seen Mileena, Rain, or Reptile Yet

Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is set to launch next week via the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. In addition to new story content and new fatalities, there will be the following new DLC characters: RoboCop, Fujin, and Sheeva. As you would expect, Mortal Kombat fans are excited to get their hands on new characters, however, others are disappointed that once again NetherRealm Studios is passing on some fan-favorite fighters who aren’t in the game yet, such as Reptile, Rain, and of course Mileena.

That said, during a new interview, creative director on the series Ed Boon revealed why they chose Fujin specifically. While hardcore fans are more than familiar with the fighter, he’s far from the most popular. In fact, many Mortal Kombat fans didn’t seem to know or remember who Fujin was when he was first revealed. In the process of revealing why the team chose Fujin, Boon reveals why some stalwarts, like Mileena, haven’t been chosen yet. According to Boon, prioritizing all of these characters would get stale after a while.

“I think over the years, we have about 80 Mortal Kombat characters in some capacity,” said Boon while speaking to Game Informer. “The reason we added Fujin was because he hasn’t been seen in a game in so long. Quite frankly, I think a decent number of players will be like, “Who’s Fujin?” If we just did Mileena, Kitana, Jade, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Rain, you know, all these characters, I think it would get stale after a while. We do need to give characters a rest every once in a while. Then, when they do return, it’s a big deal. It’s a novelty, and so we’re just kind of spreading it. Fujin was one of the things that our designers were like, “Hey, I think we could do something really cool with this character with wind and running on the wind and doing stuff with his sword.” When the designers say they could make something really unique with gameplay, that weighs a lot in terms of a decision of who to bring back.”

Later in the interview, Boon was asked if we will see Mileena come to MK11 at any point. He laughed. In other words, the door is still open, for Mileena and every other snubbed character in demand, but I wouldn’t cross those fingers too hard, especially if they are crossed for Mileena.

Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is set to drop on May 26 via the aforementioned platforms.