At the end of Mortal Kombat II’s New York Comic Con panel last Saturday, screenwriter Jeremy Slater revealed that New Line and Warner Bros. have already greenlit the next film, telling the crowd to show up to theaters next summer while he, director Simon McQuoid, and cast members Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Tati Gabrielle, and Martyn Ford discussed sequel delays and teased what’s to come, with McQuoid explaining the shift from October to May 16, 2026, was due to being “a victim of our own success.”
“We’ve created a massive summer blockbuster, so I think we should all be proud of the fact that Mortal Kombat II and the franchise itself is going to kick off next year. Yes, we have to wait, but it’s going to feel massive when it comes out,” McQuoid said.
The panel opened with a behind-the-scenes featurette that saw cast members teasing the “fatalities, the flawless victories,” and the film’s massive scale, before McQuoid began discussing how Mortal Kombat II heavily focuses on Johnny Cage (Urban) and Kitana (Rudolph).
“It was about pushing the boundaries with everything. I wanted to have much more emotion with the characters, so there were much higher highs and lower lows. I wanted us to journey through all of the realms and different places, levels and environments you can go to in Mortal Kombat. I wanted us to spend more time in those places and to be able to use the treasure trove created over the years,” he said. “It’s a great problem to have when you have a movie with 20 main characters. There’s so much to choose from. It’s so daunting at the same time,” he said. “You can’t make a six-hour Mortal Kombat movie.”
A kountdown event led up to the trailer’s debut, revealing the tournament’s fighters through actor posters in a presentation styled after the classic character selection screen, underscoring how central the tournament will be to the story. “The tournament itself allowed us to create a structure that the storylines all went through,” McQuoid said. “All of our characters, their journeys have to go through the tournament. We wanted to do that in a way that was visually massive, interesting, but has the variety that Mortal Kombat always has.”
McQuoid also noted that for IMAX, he wanted to do “a little more with the screen. There are some little bits of joy in there. You won’t see it in regular screenings, and it affects the story a little bit.” He encouraged fans to see the film on the biggest screen they can.
During the panel, the cast discussed their character arcs and preparation, with Urban revealing that when audiences first meet Cage, “he’s a very dispirited character. His career is completely in the tank. He’s not been keeping up with his training. The world has forgotten who Johnny Cage is… He’s just a broken man,” before being drafted to fight and “transform into a true champion of Earthrealm, a hero involuntarily launched into this insane action adventure.”
Slater added, “The Johnny Cage of the game isn’t necessarily a character you can go on a journey with. He already has everything. It was fun to start him at a lower place and watch him become the Johnny Cage we know and love.”
