Mortal Kombat reboot: images and plot details revealed for April release

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Warner Bros. has been keeping a pretty tight lid on the Mortal Kombat reboot produced by James Wan, but with the film's theatrical and HBO Max release date – April 16th – now just three months away, they've finally lifted the lid a little bit. Entertainment Weekly was given a batch of images from the film that give us our first looks at the characters Sub-Zero, Kano, Sonya Blade, Jax, Scorpion and Sub-Zero before they became Scorpion and Sub-Zero (back when they were Hanzo and Bi-Han), Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Cole Young, a character who was created specifically for this movie. Those images can be seen below.

Cole Young is the previously "unspecified" role being played by Lewis Tan. Tan explains that 

when we first meet Cole, he's in a really bad spot. He's down on his luck. He's kind of a washed-up MMA fighter who used to be a champion, who used to believe in himself, who used to have a lot of hope in his career. And it's all gone down the drain. It's a very interesting place for a hero to start, and I think that, along the journey of Mortal Kombat and Cole discovering where he comes from, you're introduced to all these other iconic characters and elements that everybody loves so dearly."

Cole also happens to have a birthmark on his chest that's in the shape of the Mortal Kombat symbol, which is why sinister sorcerer/emperor of the realm Outerworld, Shang Tsung (Chin Han), sends Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) after him.

Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs (Mehcad Brooks), a special forces major who bears the same mark as Cole, urges him to seek out Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee). She ferries him onward to the next leg of the journey, to the thunderous Elder God known as Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), who grants sanctuary at his temple to all those with the mark. There, Cole encounters even more recognizable characters from the Mortal Kombat games — Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Kung Lao (Max Huang), and Kano (Josh Lawson) — as they all train for a high-stakes tournament to defeat the invading enemies from Outerworld.

The image of Bi-Han (Taslim) fighting Hanzo (Hiroyuki Sanada) comes from the beginning of the movie, as this Mortal Kombat starts with a 10-minute sequence that focuses on their blood feud 

in feudal Japan, long before these fighters wielded supernatural abilities as Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and it ends in "a pretty nasty hand-to-hand combat" between the two.

Hanzo is shown to be a peaceful family man before that fight, but during this sequence we learn why he'll use a kunai blade when he becomes Scorpion. Director Simon McQuoid told EW, 

We did a bit of research and the kunai is actually an ancient Japanese gardening tool. So, one of the earliest shots in the movie is the kunai blade being used as a gardening tool by Hanzo's wife."

McQuoid also said that this isn't "a shiny film", because he "wanted the dirt and the grime to come through". The film will also deliver "gore, blood, and fatalies", which is why it has earned an R rating. 

Tan said, 

There are some crazy fatalities. We've picked a couple of iconic ones. There's a lot of really cool signature moves that you'll see, a lot of Easter eggs that we snuck into the film, but there are some really badass fatalities that I can't wait to see on the big screen. They're brutal, man. They don't hold back."

In addition to the actors mentioned above and seen below, Mortal Kombat also stars Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Elissa Cadwell as Nitara, and Daniel Nelson as Kabal.

James Wan produced Mortal Kombat with Todd Garner. Larry Kasanoff, E. Bennett Walsh, Michael Clear, and Sean Robins serve as executive producers. 

With these images revealed and a release plan in place, it shouldn't be much longer before we see a trailer.