“Mortal Kombat II” has not yet been released in theaters, but fans can be assured that “Mortal Kombat III” is also in development, it was announced at New York Comic Con on Saturday.
Mortal Kombat cast and crew members Adeline Rudolph, Karl Urban, Martin Ford, Simon McQuoid, and Tati Gabriel took to the stage to announce that Jeremy Slater will be returning to the martial arts fantasy film as producer and writer for the third installment.
“Our friends at New Line and Warner Bros. are very happy and excited about this film,” said Slater. “They are confident that there is a huge fan base waiting for this work and have already hired me to begin writing the next Mortal Kombat game.”
The announcement comes months before the sequel’s scheduled release on May 15th. No additional details regarding the plot of the third film were shared.
Mortal Kombat, a movie based on the popular video game series, centers on a series of tournaments between the champions of Earthrealm and the chaotic Outworld. In the tournament, heroes such as Cole Young, Sonya Blade, Kano, Jax, Liu Kang, and Kung Lao battle villains such as Mileena, Nitara, Reiko, Kabal, Reptile, Goro, and the sorcerer Shang Tsung.
The sequel, which builds on the previous Tournament, will see the return of many characters, including Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Ching Han as Shang Tsung, and Joe. Taslim as Bi Han and Max Huang as Kung Lao.
New cast members for the sequel include Urban as Johnny Cage, Rudolph as Kitana, Gabriel as Jade, Damon Herriman as Quan Chi, Ford as Shao Kahn, Desmond Thiam as Jerrod, Ana Tu Nguyen as Sindel, and CJ Bloomfield as Baraka.
McQuoid’s 2021 film adaptation of Mortal Kombat was a huge success, considering it premiered in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic and was simultaneously released on HBO Max. It debuted at number one at the box office, grossing $84 million worldwide against a budget of $55 million. It also became HBO Max’s most successful movie launch at the time.
“Mortal Kombat” was produced by James Wan, Todd Garner, McQuoid, and E. Bennett Walsh. The screenplay was written by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, based on the novel by Russo and Oren Uziel. Richard Brenner, Dave Neustadter, Victoria Palmeri, Michael Clear, Jeremy Stein and Larry Kasanoff served as executive producers for New Line Cinema.
