Mortal Kombat 2 Writer Spills On New Characters For The Sequel
The next tournament will have more fresh meat!
Last year’s Mortal Kombat reboot was one of the bigger success stories among Warner Bros’ day-and-date releases. But in spite of solid numbers and a great response from fans, the film couldn’t possibly cram in all of the characters from the popular video game series, but hey! That’s what sequels are for, right? According to the Mortal Kombat 2 writer, that’s exactly what you can expect in the sequel, and he’s confirmed at least one of the names fans can expect to show up.
Speaking to Comic Book, Mortal Kombat 2 writer Jeremy Slater confirmed that — as indicated at the conclusion of Mortal Kombat when Cole (Lewis Tan) begins his search for the character — Johnny Cage will appear in the sequel. The writer did warn, however, that “it’s still a little bit up in the air how much he will be included.” Slater didn’t get into specifics, but said Cage’s level of involvement is one of the things currently being hashed out. There’s no word on who will play the hero, though the site notes that some vocal fans have been campaigning for either Ryan Reynolds or professional wrestler The Miz to be cast in the part.
Slater did not confirm how many other new characters will appear in Mortal Kombat 2, or who they will be, but he does drop some hints in regard to both numbers and names. Speaking of the unavoidable limits of who could appear, Slater said, “So if the last movie introduced 10 characters, we can’t necessarily turn around and introduce another 10 characters because then you’re dealing with 20 people in a movie and it becomes a sort of cameo parade. So you really have to go through and kind of cherry-pick, who are your three or four favorite heroes we can add, who are your three or four favorite villains?” You could make the argument that it’s reading too much into Slater’s words, but it’s tempting to assume that he’s saying we can expect between six and eight new characters to show up in Mortal Kombat 2; three to four new heroes and three to four new villains.
As far as who those characters might be, while Slater doesn’t confirm any additions beyond Johnny Cage, he does mention some specific names. Speaking about the importance of giving each character enough time to shine, Slater said, “You don’t want Erron Black to just kind of walk by in the background and everyone goes like, ‘Yeah, that was him.’ If you’re using that character or you’re using Johnny Cage or Kitana or D’Vorah, or any of these characters from the games, you want to make sure that you have a story to tell.” Of course, the fact that he used those four names doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It could be misdirection, but it could also be that the guy is working on Mortal Kombat 2 and those four names were on his mind.
Along with Mortal Kombat 2, Jeremy Slater was the head writer for Moon Knight. He worked on The Exorcist TV series and Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. He’s also credited as one of the writers of the upcoming live-action animation hybrid Coyote Vs. ACME, though there are signs that project could be in trouble. At the end of April Warner Bros. made changes to its release schedule, including moving the Margot Robbie-led Barbie into Coyote Vs. ACME‘s release date of July 21, 2023 without rescheduling the latter film.
