Mortal Kombat II will finally bring the tournament for the fate of the realms center stage, with many exciting martial arts fight sequences in store for the highly anticipated sequel. Mortal Kombat 2 picks up from the ending of 2021’s Mortal Kombat, in which MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is recruited to fight to defend Earthrealm from Outworld in the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament. In Mortal Kombat 2, Hollywood action star Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) becomes the latest Earthrealm fighter pulled aboard as the tournament begins, with the incredulous Johnny summoning all of his vast martial arts skills for the battle to prevent Outworld’s conquest of Earthrealm.
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Mortal Kombat 2‘s trailer shows there is a lot to be excited for in the sequel, including an abundance of the flashy, powerful, and fatality-heavy martial arts action that Mortal Kombat fans expect. One of the stand-outs is the promise of Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) clashing with his old rival Bi-Han (Joe Taslim) again after the pair’s show-stealing fight scenes in the preceding Mortal Kombat, and there are also plenty of other exciting fight sequences to look forward to beyond that.
Here are our most anticipated upcoming fight scenes in Mortal Kombat II.
6) Scorpion vs. Noob Saibot
The aforementioned battle royale of Scorpion and Bi-Han in Mortal Kombat II will be their third canonical showdown in the rebooted Mortal Kombat franchise timeline, and like the first two, will bring a new identity twist for Joe Taslim’s Bi-Han. The first Mortal Kombat showed Bi-Han defeating Hanzo Hasashi in feudal Japan, with the two clashing again as Scorpion and Sub-Zero in the movie’s finale. Mortal Kombat II will build from Bi-Han’s defeat with his transition from the games from Sub-Zero into Noob Saibot for their third battle in the Netherrealm, with producer Todd Garner unveiling the first look at the movie’s Scorpion vs. Noob Saibot showdown (shown above) to ComicBook. The greatest rivalry of Mortal Kombat lore just never gets old, which makes Mortal Kombat II‘s Scorpion vs. Noob Saibot smackdown one of the sequel’s most exciting fights.
5) Johnny Cage vs. Kitana
Mortal Kombat‘s hotshot Hollywood action hero is in for a wild ride when he joins the tournament for the fate of the realms in Mortal Kombat 2, with one of his promised fight sequences including a smackdown between Johnny Cage and Princess Kitana (Adeline Rudolph).
Absent entirely from 2021’s Mortal Kombat, Kitana’s role in Mortal Kombat II is bringing all of her signature fighting prowess and fan-wielding slashes to a very surprised Johnny Cage. With Kitana hailing from Outworld but traditionally fighting for Earthrealm, it’s possible this could be a non-lethal training match between Johnny and Kitana. Alternatively, it could be similar to Kitana’s role in the web-series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, in which she at first fights for Shao Kahn, only to defect to Earthrealm. Either way, Kitana’s fight scene with Johnny Cage looks like one of Mortal Kombat II‘s big highlights.
4) Johnny Cage vs. Baraka
While Johnny Cage’s match-up with Kitana is ambiguous about her place in the Earthrealm-Outworld conflict, there is little doubt about which side Baraka (CJ Bloomfield) is fighting for in his fight scene with Johnny, glimpsed in Mortal Kombat II‘s trailer. Baraka has been a surprisingly underutilized Mortal Kombat character in most adaptations, appearing briefly as a goofy adversary against Liu Kang in a quick fight in 1997’s dreadful Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
Baraka later featured prominently in the 2010 proof-of-concept short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, played by Lateef Crowder dos Santos (in which he decapitates Matt Mullins’s Johnny Cage), only for Baraka to mostly be in the background for the subsequent Mortal Kombat: Legacy series. With Mortal Kombat II, Johnny Cage has a chance to come back for a rematch against his arm-bladed enemy.
3) Jade vs. Kitana
With Kitana making her long-awaited big-screen return in Mortal Kombat II, Johnny Cage won’t be her only opponent in the tournament for the realms, with the bo-staff-wielding Jade (Tati Gabrielle) stepping in to face Kitana.
Jade has been adapted outside of the Mortal Kombat games even less than Baraka, with her only live-action appearance to date being in the aforementioned 1997 disaster of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (Jade played in the movie by Irina Pantaeva). Jade was subsequently seen in the 2021 animated movie Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (voiced by Emily O’Brien), and with Jade’s canonical friendship with Kitana in Mortal Kombat lore, it will be interesting to see how that plays into the story of Mortal Kombat II amid the pair’s teased face-off in the tournament.
2) Liu Kang vs. Shao Kahn
Mortal Kombat‘s stalwart Shaolin monk Liu Kang has traditionally been the main protagonist of the franchise and leader of Earthrealm’s warriors in the tournament, which has made his supporting role in the contemporary Mortal Kombat films a bit of a switch-up. Nonetheless, Ludi Lin’s performance as Liu Kang has truly captured the essence of the focused warrior, and Mortal Kombat II‘s trailer presents a brief but exciting glimpse at a smackdown between Liu Kang and the ruthless overlord of Outworld, Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford).
The brief snippet shows Liu Kang blasting one of his fireball attacks against the vicious, overbearing conqueror, and while Mortal Kombat II‘s trailer and overall marketing have kept Shao Kahn a fairly minimal presence, the tease of a Liu Kang vs. Shao Kahn showdown in Mortal Kombat II is easily one of the most exciting fights in the sequel.
1) Kung Lao vs. Shao Kahn
Liu Kang won’t be the only Earthrealm warrior to face Shao Kahn directly in Mortal Kombat II, with the trailer also showing his Shaolin brother Kung Lao (Max Huang) taking on the vicious warlord from Outworld. Kung Lao helped to assemble the team of fighters to defend Earthrealm in 2021’s Mortal Kombat, only to be killed and have his soul pulled from him by Outworld’s evil sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han).
Though Liu Kang avenged Kung Lao’s death, his demise was a huge and heartbreaking shock for many Mortal Kombat fans, making it all the more exciting to see his return for the tournament in Mortal Kombat II. Even better, the snippets of Kung Lao’s fight in the Mortal Kombat II trailer show his patented razor hat being put to good use, and setting up Kung Lao’s fight with Shao Kahn to be one of the most exciting showdowns of the tournament in Mortal Kombat II.
Mortal Kombat II will be released in theaters on October 24th.
What fight are you most looking forward to in Mortal Kombat II? Let us know in the comments below!
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