In addition to the global success of its video game franchise, Mortal Kombat is finally starting to thrive in the modern movie world. New Line Cinema’s live-action reboot of the franchise debuted in the spring of 2021, and quickly became one of the most successful films from Warner Bros.’ “Project Popcorn” experiment of simultaneously releasing movies in theaters and on HBO Max. As fans of the games know, Mortal Kombat definitely did not adapt all of its source material in a single sitting, with a sequel officially in the works. While speaking to ComicBook.com‘s Brandon Davisย at the recent BoxLunch Holiday Gala Benefitting Feeding America, Cole Young actor Lewis Tan teased how work is going on the sequel amid the recent Warner Bros. Discovery merger, and teased that he’s been “training [his] ass off” for the new film.
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“Well, it impacts a lot, but not really us in particular because New Line is the studio that is under the branch of Warner Bros,” Tan explained in our interview, which you can check out above. “But they’re very happy with the movie, and obviously, it performed really well. It’s one of the most-viewed films of their Warner Bros. Slate, even though it came out at the worst time ever possible. But no, we’re full steam ahead. And now, we have Ed Boon with us as well, so we got the stamp of approval from the legend himself. #2 is just going to be absolutely insane. Way bigger.”
What will Mortal Kombat 2 be about?
Mortal Kombat 2 will be directed by Simon McQuoid, who helmed the first film, and will be written by Moon Knight’s Jeremy Slater. Plot details are currently unknown at this time, but it sounds like Slater has a unique approach to the franchise writ large.
“I feel like the gore inย Mortal Kombatย is awesome and it’s part of what people come for, you always have to find that balance between fun gore and gross gore, right?” Slater told ComicBook.com in an interview earlier this year. “Because there’s times where you rip someone’s heart off or the best kill in the first movie is Kung Lao’s spinning hat just sort of slicing her in half and that’s the perfect example of fun gore because it’s disgusting, but everyone laughs at the same time, right? You want to make sure that everyone is sort of laughing at the sort of audacity of the gore and they’re not sitting there sort of sickened by close ups of dripping entrails and visceral and things like that.”
“There’s a tongue in cheek aspect of Mortal Kombat in terms of the violence and in terms of the gore, there’s a little bit of winking at the audience and saying like, ‘Yeah, we know this is ridiculous, but it’s really fun and we’re all in on the joke together,’” Slater continued. “And when you find the right balance, I think that’s where you get moments like that incredibly bloody first battle that opens the first movie with score with Hanzo sort of tearing through all the assassins or you get the hat gag or things like that. So we’re looking at how do we emulate those gore moments from the first one that were really, really successful and got huge audience reactions and how do we give the audience even more this time around.”
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