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Warner Bros. Pictures’ plan to simultaneously release films in theaters and on HBO Max had some negative effects on the studio’s box office numbers. But the Mortal Kombat reboot was one of the studio’s few success stories of 2021. According to Deadline, the film had about 5.6 million streams on HBO Max in its first month alone, making the reboot of the popular franchise a hit for the young streamer. That may be why New Line Cinema is officially greenlighting a Mortal Kombat sequel.
Deadline is reporting that Jeremy Slater is set to write the script for Mortal Kombat 2. Slater is the head writer for Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight, which will make its debut March 30 on Disney+. He also has some extensive genre credits on his resume, including creating and executive producing The Exorcist reboot for Fox and developing The Umbrella Academy for Netflix. His upcoming projects include a reboot of Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers and a film called Thread, which will be written and directed by Slater himself.
Slater confirmed his involvement with Mortal Kombat 2 with a post on Twitter. He also made some promises to fans of the franchise.
Beyond excited to be joining this team! We’re building something bigger and better and bloodier that’s going to blow people’s minds. https://t.co/ErVtmcvckH
— Jeremy Slater (@jerslater) January 26, 2022
Director Simon McQuoid and screenwriters Greg Russo and Dave Callaham departed from Mortal Kombat‘s video game storyline by keeping all of the action outside of the tournament itself. Presumably the sequel will finally get around to the battle that will determine whether Earthrealm is conquered by the evil emperor of Outworld, Shao Kahn.
Lewis Tan starred in the first film as Cole Young, with Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks as Jax Briggs, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Max Huang as Kung Lao, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, and Josh Lawson as Kano. Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, and Kano were all killed off in the movie, but that’s never stopped any of the Mortal Kombat characters from returning in later installments of the games.
Deadline’s report indicates that none of the cast members have deals that are “locked” at this point, so it’s anyone’s guess which heroes and villains will return.
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