Mortal Kombat Movie Director Teases Sub-Zero’s Return

Even before the Mortal Kombat reboot movie was released in theaters and on HBO Max this past weekend, fans of the beloved game franchise assumed that quite a few characters would meet their demise at some point during the film. It is, after all, Mortal Kombat. Those fans were correct, and the film saw a slew of characters killed off, including one of the most iconic kombatants in history. At the end of the movie, Scorpion returned from the Netherrealm to kill Sub-Zero, getting vengeance for his family and taking one of the most dangerous fights off the board. That said, don’t expect Sub-Zero to stay dead for too long.

There are several ways to make the Sub-Zero character come back in the likely Mortal Kombat sequel, a couple of which have been explained in the games. Joe Taslim‘s Bi-Han could return as Noob Saibot. Bi-Han’s brother could take on the mantle of Sub-Zero. The possibilities are there, and director Simon McQuoid recently told Variety that a potential Sub-Zero return is certainly in the cards.

“Well, yes, if you just look at the game, it’s exactly what the game has done in a really interesting way. I think we can perhaps learn from [the games] and try to do something interesting — again, there’s a big asterisk on all of this. I think the way they handle timelines and alternative iterations of the same character is really interesting,” McQuoid explained. “It doesn’t always mean that character comes back, ‘Oh, I’ve been reincarnated. I’m the same.’ There’s some really interesting evolution and growth of these characters. The experience of death informs who they become. So I guess I don’t want death to be something that is inconsequential. That is something I certainly thought about as we discussed this story and what that means. So I think there are opportunities there, and certainly Sub-Zero has some opportunities.”

McQuoid doesn’t want death in the franchise to be meaningless, so any character that dies won’t just magically reappear with no consequences. In the Mortal Kombat games, Bi-Han was resurrected as Noob Saibot, a haunting character with different powers fighting a very different set of demons. That would be a great way to bring Bi-Han back into the fold while still making his death matter.

The same can be said for Kung Lao, another fan-favorite character that was killed in the movie. The version of Kung Lao in the video games was brought back as a Revenant, a dark version of his character brought back to do the bidding of the Netherrealm’s forces.

Regardless of how characters like Sub-Zero and Kung Lao are brought back, it would be surprising if we didn’t see them appear in the sequel in some form or fashion.

How do you think the Mortal Kombat sequel will resurrect Sub-Zero? Let us know in the comments!