Mortal Kombat Writer Says the New Movie Won’t Repeat the Old Ones

Writer Greg Russo is currently working on his new Mortal Kombat movie, but as Mortal Kombat fans will know, this won’t be the first film adaptation we’ve seen. Two others came before it, one of them simply titled Mortal Kombat and the other called Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. We don’t know yet what’ll happen in the original story that Russo’s Mortal Kombat film centers around, but whatever transpires, we do know that it won’t repeat what’s already been seen in the older movies.

ComicBook.com’s Adam Barnhardt spoke to Russo about the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie and asked how the writer approached the new film when the many games and two movies offer their own sources of inspirations. Russo, a lifelong fan of Mortal Kombat and someone who’s played the games, said the movie’s mission statement is to not repeat anything people have already seen somewhere else.

“And the mission statement for the new film has always been, we don’t want to repeat what you’ve already seen,” Russo said. “That doesn’t really appeal to anybody, I don’t think. And they already have those films. So at the same time we wanted to tell a new story that’s going to be exciting, but that’s gonna be faithful to the lore and the games that everybody knows and loves.”

Elaborating on this mission statement, Russo said the goal was to have the new film feeling fresh while still paying respects to the series of games that it’s based on.

“So the mission statement was really just bring your passion to the project and let’s figure out what the best story is for a new film adaptation that feels fresh and at the same time pays respect to the game.”

From the way Russo explains it, Mortal Kombat newcomers won’t have to rewatch any movies to get the most out of the next adaptation. There may of course be a nod in the film to either or both of the first two, but with so many games and characters in the series to pull inspiration from, we’ll likely see more than a few references made.

Russo also told ComicBook.com that we’ll be seeing more than a few familiar faces in the new movie. Unlike what was possible in the older movies, we’ll also be seeing these characters face some game-accurate Fatalities.

Russo’s upcoming Mortal Kombat movie is scheduled to release in theaters on March 5, 2021.