Round 2! Fight! New Line has officially confirmed that Mortal Kombat 2 is in the works. The studio has hired Jeremy Slater to pen the sequel. Slater was the lead writer on Marvel’s Moon Knight series starring Oscar Isaac. Slater is also writing Thread for Screen Gems and wrote episodes for Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy and The Exorcist.
While Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat faced an uphill battle in theaters due to the pandemic, the reboot performed like gangbusters on HBO Max. Last year, Deadline reported that Mortal Kombat was the streaming service’s most-watched Warner Bros theatrical day-and-date title with 5.5M U.S. households tuning in.
McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat was met with mixed reactions from critics and fans alike, but voices on both sides of the spectrum expressed that they’d happily engage with a Mortal Kombat 2. For better or worse, Mortal Kombat left plenty of room for a sequel, with some elements of its story feeling unfinished. Be that as it may, the promise of a Mortal Kombat 2 is great news for people like me who genuinely enjoyed the reboot. Was it perfect? No. But did it set the table for more outrageous characters to enter the fight down the line? Absolutely. I think that if Slater can take the criticisms of the reboot to heart and concentrate more on the Mortal Kombat tournament itself, we’ll be in good shape.
Back in September, it was reported that HBO Max is open to the idea of developing Mortal Kombat spinoff projects. According to reports, these spinoffs would explore the origins of characters featured in the reboot. It’s also a possibility that the spinoffs would welcome new fighters into the fold, but it’s all rumor for the time being.
Are you excited to hear that New Line is up for making Mortal Kombat 2? Did you enjoy the reboot? Do you think McQuoid should be asked to helm the sequel or does the franchise need some new blood? What characters would you like to see be included in Mortal Kombat 2? let us know in the comments section below.