Caffeinated Clint
With the film chalking up a sumly at the box-office over the weekend, expect Warner Bros to greenlight a sequel to “Mortal Kombat” as early as this week.
Speaking to Variety, Director Simon McQuoid said that while a sequel was never brought up once during production on “Mortal Kombat”, he’s not opposed to going there if the fans demand it.
”Sequels are a bit tricky because you can’t totally ignore them, because that wouldn’t be a smart move, but none of us used the “s-word.” We’d never talk about it in any depth whatsoever because we feel like we have to put all our energy into this film. That being said, if the fans want another one, that’s not for us to decide; that’s for the fans to decide. Then, we need a couple of joiner pieces that we know can lead us somewhere because there’s a treasure trove of stuff that’s just sitting there.”
In terms of what we can expect come “Mortal Kombat 2”, the Aussie filmmaker hints at some new arrivals – like the popular Hollywood action star and fighter suggested at the end of the film – as well as the return of some purportedly-deceased characters.
Johnny Cage
“The reason [Johnny Cage] is not in this original film is he’s such a giant personality that he almost has his own gravitational field. The feeling was that he would throw it out of balance slightly”. It’s very likely Cage will pop up in the next film, if the end of “Mortal Kombat” is anything to go by. WWE superstar The Miz has put his hand up to play the role – and Ed Boon, co-creator of the game, is all for that.
Guy makes a compelling case 👍🏻 https://t.co/pasFn3LiNn
— Ed Boon (@noobde) April 24, 2021
Sub-Zero
“I think the way [The Games] handle timelines and alternative iterations of the same character is really interesting. 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.” FYI : In the original games, Sub-Zero was resurrected as Noob Saibot.
Kitana
“I get asked about Kitana just as much as Johnny Cage. There’s a lot of interesting characters, story and material to work with.” Kitana is, of course, the princess of Outworld and the adopted daughter of the emperor, Shao Kahn. She is just one of several female characters McQuoid would like to bring into the new MK Movie Universe. “There are some fantastic female characters in “Mortal Kombat.” And I think we can bring balance there, to a better extent.”
Rain
The character of Rain, a prince who can control water and lightning, was originally in “Mortal Kombat” -but he’s been saved for later. “Very early on, there was a scene with Rain, but he wasn’t being done justice and wasn’t driving the story forward. That’s a reason he got put back on the bench.”
The plan, it seems, is to have the tournament kick in in the next film and for the subsequent sequel to explore the aftermath of it.
“The story came out of this idea that we didn’t just want to redo the first film”, says McQuoid. “If you look at “Mortal Kombat’s” evolution over the decades, that has evolved and grown beyond the idea of the tournament. That’s obviously essential within the DNA of “Mortal Kombat,” and it’s one of the fundamentals, if you look at where the story has gone. The idea of a tournament within a script informs a certain structure and rhythm. We didn’t really want to serve that. To serve a tournament idea, you have to build it a certain way. So it was a couple of reasons that came to it playing out in the way it did.”
