Mortal Kombat 2 Will Be All About The Series’ Most Lovable Loser
Getting the bloody band back together.
Mortal Kombat is returning to the big screen this fall, and this time around, even more of the fighting game franchise’s iconic characters are set to appear. From Karl Urban’s hilarious turn as Hollywood’s B-list playboy Johnny Cage to the debut of series antagonist Shao Kahn, Mortal Kombat 2 seems to be a perfect follow-up to the flawed but fun 2021 film.
The film’s first trailer gives us a look at how the sequel builds on NetherRealms Studios’ beloved series. For one, there seems to be a major focus on Cage. Not only was he the star of the hilarious spoof teaser leading up to today’s premiere, but the trailer suggests we’ll be experiencing this return to Outworld through the former action star’s eyes.
In Mortal Kombat 2, Cage is seemingly long removed from his glory days. He’s down on his luck and slumming it in bars when he’s recruited to take part in the title tournament pretty much out of the blue. It’s here we see the return of Sonya Blade, Jax, Raiden, Liu Kang, and the first movie’s hilarious breakout star, Kano. Strangely, the lead of the first film, original character Cole Young, only makes a brief appearance, so it seems he’s taking a back seat to Johnny’s journey.
The returning cast is just the tip of the bloody spear, as the trailer also gives us a good look at a few new faces, the most notable of which include Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) and Jade (Tati Gabrielle). Kitana is seen using her iconic fan blades as she dukes it out with a staff-swinging Jade. The two are childhood friends turned enemies in the game canon, so I wouldn't be surprised if their relationship is a major part of the new film.
Baraka, the demonic-looking warrior known for his forearm blades and brutal fatalities, also makes a brief appearance fighting Johnny as others watch on. Speaking of fatalities, the trailer ends with Scorpion delivering a horrific, spine-splitting end to some poor sap of a ninja, a vicious bit of business worthy of the trailer’s red band classification.
As for what our heroes are up against this time around, the trailer gives us our first glimpse at Shao Kahn, the movie’s big bad. I’d argue the tyrant of Outworld has never looked as good as he does here, sporting his skull mask and crimson eyes just like in the games.
Shao Kahn looks as menacing as you’d expect.
While it’s great to see so many familiar characters, I am curious as to how the film will balance them all. Promotional posters released alongside the trailer reveal a total of 16 combatants, more characters than appeared in the first two classic fighting games. As we all learned from 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, an overstuffed cast can lead to an underbaked and incoherent story. Hopefully, returning director Simon McQuoid can avoid those infamous pitfalls.
2021’s Mortal Kombat wasn’t perfect, but it was a decent enough kick-off for an aspiring tentpole franchise. While the generic protagonist was servicable at best to the film’s fairly straightforward story, the movie delivered on the gore and fight scenes. It also helped that it was among the first movies to debut on Max amid the height of the lockdowns, making it easy to forgive its shortcomings. Mortal Kombat 2 faces a higher bar, but its trailer suggests it can clear it.
