After the box office failure of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, it would seem that a return into the movie universe became a pipe dream for the Mortal Kombat franchise.
Then, a fan short called Mortal Kombat: Rebirth demonstrated how the brand could still work if the origin stories were tweaked and if it was based on realism. The pitch led its director, Kevin Tancharoen, to work on the pre-production of a feature-length film but budget constraints caused Tancharoen to quit production.
James Wan signed on as producer in August 2015, Simon McQuoid was chosen as director and soon production for the film was on its way.
Lewis Tan (our February cover star) was cast as Cole Young, an original character created for this reboot and while some of the plot remains under wraps, the trailer (see below) looked promising. We saw the return of a few familiar faces (Scorpion; Liu Kang; Shang Tsung!) as well as the actors playing them (Hiroyuki Sanada; Ludi Lin; Chin Han!) and let's not forget the fatalities. The physics-defying, anatomically-impossible coup de grâce will be in the movie, though a small part of me hope to see a 'FRIENDSHIP' finisher happen. Watch the Mortal Kombat trailer below.
Mortal Kombat will be released on April 16, 2021 and will screen on HBO Max.
