Mortal Kombat 2023 Trailer

Mortal Kombat has been a popular video game since 1992 when it was created by Midway Games. In the late '90s, Hollywood adapted the franchise into a series of movies. The first installment, Mortal Kombat, was released in 1995, followed by its sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, in 1997. While the first movie did well, the second film made studio executives decide against making other sequels.

Then, in 2021, audiences were treated to a reboot of the original Mortal Kombat film, which was an enormous success. In fact, it was so successful that New Line Cinema executives almost immediately greenlit a sequel. This new film is currently in production and promises to be everything that fans wanted from past movies. New characters will be added, more lore will be explored, and the world of Mortal Kombat will get bigger.

With that, here's everything we know about Mortal Kombat 2 so far!

Updated July 8, 2022, by Ted Bajer: If you’re looking for more information regarding which new Mortal Kombat fighters will be involved in the sequel, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve updated this article with more details.

Mortal Kombat 2: ThePlot

*Jeremy Slater, who has productions like Moon Knight and The Umbrella Academy under his belt, is writing the movie's screenplay. In an interview with The Direct, Slater said this about the script:

"I’m working really closely with the director and the studios, and the game guys, and I think — I can’t say anything about the actual story, but I think they definitely learned some lessons the last time around in terms of, ‘Here’s the stuff fans responded to, and here’s what people liked out of the movie, and here’s the stuff that didn’t work out as well as we hoped.' So we’re really looking at this as a chance to take everything that worked in the first one and do it even better and give the audience even more, and make something that is just incredibly satisfying, and really exciting, and unpredictable."

Mortal Kombat 2: Confirmed Cast & Characters

One character confirmed for the movie is Noob Saibot. He will be played by Joe Taslim, who had the role of Sub-Zero in the 2021 movie. For those unfamiliar with the video game canon, Sub-Zero transformed into the deadly shadow Noob Saibot after being defeated by Scorpion. So it is a delight he will return played by the same actor. He is the epitome of evil in the game series, so this transformation from ice ninja into evil shadow will be an event fans won't want to miss.

*While many fans were upset that Johnny Cage was not in the first movie, the arrogant fighting champion will be in the sequel. Writer Jeremy Slater said in an interview with ComicBook that he would include Johnny in the sequel:

"Johnny Cage is one of my favorite characters, and I think there's definitely a promise with the way the first movie ends of seeing Cole being like, 'Okay, my next stop is to go recruit Johnny.' So I think if he wasn't included in the sequel at all, it would feel very strange."

We also expect that Cole Young (Lewis Tan), the offspring of Scorpion, will also return. It has been confirmed that Major Jackson 'Jax' Briggs (Mehcad Brooks), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), and Shang Tsung (Chin Han) will return for the second installment.

Who Could Join the Sequel?

Other characters on the fans' wishlist are Nightwolf, Sheeva, Kotal Kahn, and Shinnok. The first Mortal Kombat had the perfect setup for Sheeva to appear in the sequel since Cole killed Goro in the first film. But, there is no reason the sequel needs to have Shinnok since Shang Tsung will again fill the role of villain. However, it would be frosting on the cake. Creators also hinted at Kitana appearing in the sequel via a pair of fans showing up at the end of the first movie.

*With Johnny Cage's name confirmed, fans have been posting on social media trying to cast the role themselves. One big name in the running is The Miz of WWE fame. In a different interview with ComicBook, the wrestler said he has already started training should the opportunity present itself:

"I have been working on my splits. I've been working on my kicks. As soon as I saw that Mortal Kombat was out and there was no Johnny Cage yet and my name was literally trending worldwide No. 1, 'We want Miz as Johnny Cage,' I was like, 'If they want that to happen, I need to basically make sure that I am prepared and ready that if that opportunity presents itself, then I will be ready and focused."

Another name that has been circulating in the rumor mill has been Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy. There are unconfirmed reports that studios have ignored these trends on social media and have begun courting Hunnam to play Johnny Cage instead.

*Another excellent casting for the sequel would be to cast Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Kotal Kahn. However, one of the issues of securing bigger stars for the film is that their professional calendars are often packed with other movies. Why not wait until the dream cast list is available? Because the film has already entered pre-production. Jeremy Slater told The Direct in May that the script was about halfway done. He also said that the studio had heard the voices of fans, and they are working hard to "give the audience even more" in such a way that fans would be more satisfied.

Release Date

*And while no release date has been confirmed, fans can likely expect the film to be released sometime in 2023. Mortal Kombat 2 is at a pre-production stage where a lot of work is yet to be done. All that CGI takes time.