Mortal Kombat 12: Character Confirmed Not to Be in Game Ahead of Reveal
The current expectation based on rumor mill rumblings is that Mortal Kombat 12 is set to be revealed soon, possibly at the next PlayStation Showcase, which itself is rumored to go down in May. When and where the next Mortal Kombat game will end up being revealed, remains to be seen, but ahead of this reveal one potential character -- or more specifically, potentially DLC guest character -- has been ruled out, disappointing many Mortal Kombat fans in the process.
In 2019, near the release of the game, Mortal Kombat 11's DLC roster was leaked by NetherRealm Studios itself, who left the names of the characters in the game's files for dataminers to find. All of these characters slowly but surely came to the game, minus one, Evil Dead's Ash Williams. It's never been explicitly confirmed, but we understand that licensing issues thwarted work on the DLC character up until the point the entire plans were scrapped. If you were hoping for these issues to have been sorted out for Mortal Kombat 12, well we have bad news.
Speaking to The AV Club, Bruce Campbell -- the actor behind the character -- more or less relayed word that Ash Williams in Mortal Kombat is not happening. And if Campbell gets his way, this will never change, as the actor doesn't want to see the character in games other than Evil Dead games.
"No, I don't want Ash to appear in other people's games," said Campbell. "Other creatures like Freddy and Jason should be in the Evil Dead game...You should be able to play as Freddy. You should be able to play as Jason and then have Ash fight those guys ... that's what I would do."
Campbell never name-drops Mortal Kombat, but he drives the point home, noting he's "not interested in loaning Ash out," saying, "they need to come to our house." Of course, Campbell doesn't own the rights to the character, but if he's not on board it's probably not going to happen. And if somehow it does, it sounds like Campbell may not lend his talents for the character's voice. That said, never say never in game development. At one point, Ash Williams looked like a certainty in Mortal Kombat, but then it didn't happen. Now the shoe is snugly on the other foot, but these types of things change all the time.