Mortal Kombat Director on How the Music Became Incredibly Important

If you're still rewatching the Mortal Kombat movie trailer on a daily basis, you've surely taken note of the recognizable music that it features. While what is featured is a bit different from the musical stylings that were heard in the original films and video games, director Simon McQuoid and composer Benjamin Wallfisch are still very much trying to channel the melodies that many fans are likely already familiar with from the series.

During a visit to the set of Mortal Kombat, ComicBook.com had a chance to speak with McQuoid about the movie and his goal when it came to the soundtack. At one point, McQuoid played a song from the movie's score for us to listen to which was a remixed iteration of the original movie theme. McQuoid went on to say that when he first met with Wallfisch, they very much seemed to be in line with what they wanted to do with the film's music. "Very early on he and I had a meeting when it was the first time we'd met and I went and chatted to him and we got together, and I thought I'm going to go into this meeting and have to sort of really convince this incredibly talented amazing composer to be on my movie," McQuoid explained. "And so when I got in there, we started chatting and it was like an instant connection. It was fantastic."

McQuoid went on to tell us that one of his main pursuits with Mortal Kombat was to not only create a movie that fans would enjoy, but also one that would respect the franchise's lineage. This idea is something that needed to extend not only to the action sequences, but all other areas as well, including the music. "So he came in knowing that, and then we started talking about the respect for the fans and the material and stuff and he said, 'Do you think there's anything we can do with distinct music?'" McQuoid said of a conversation he had with Wallfisch. "And I said, 'Well, yeah. I think through this whole process, what we're doing here is we're taking material that's well known and we're moving it, and we're elevating.' So everything gets moved and just we're taking it seriously, very seriously."

Prior to then letting us here at ComicBook.com listen to more of the score from Mortal Kombat, McQuoid said that when he first heard Wallfisch's composition he "had sweat on my brow." The music then allowed him to get a better idea for the movie as a whole, which then also assisted with the casting process. "And so this piece of music allowed me to then, when I started talking to prospective actors, it made my life so much easier. I could talk, play something, didn't have to pitch them so hard. And I just played this bit of music for them and they knew exactly the movie we were making," McQuoid said.

Even though there's still very little we have heard from the music of Mortal Kombat, it definitely sounds like McQuoid and Wallfisch aren't trying to overlook the iconic sound that the series has long boasted. And if fans end up being half as happy as McQuoid sounds about the film's musical work, I would imagine they'll be quite pleased with the final product.

Mortal Kombat is set to release in a little over a month on April 16th and it will be arriving both in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously.