Mortal Kombat 2 will be directed by Simon McQuoid, the director of the first film, Warnes Bros. confirms.
The Mortal Kombat movie was released simultaneously in theaters and HBO Max in April 2021, difficult times for the COVID pandemic. However, this did not stop the film from becoming a milestone for many video game fans. In fact, it was so well received – topping the box office during its premiere on the streaming platform (grossing more than $84 million, compared to its original budget of $55 million) – that New Line is planning sequel details, which means the franchise will bring back more live-action adventures from the video game saga.
McQouid is back for the sequel to Mortal Kombat 2
Mortal Kombat -or rather, the first installment of the Warner Bros film franchise based on the Midway Games fighting video games- was directed by Simon McQuoid, who had already participated in other projects for Halo 3 and Call of Duty. So recently the sequel was confirmed at the helm again by McQuoid, who also has other projects for Sony, like the sci-fi thriller Omega.
Regarding the cast, Lewis Tan was the protagonist of Mortal Kombat, playing Cole, along with Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade; Josh Lawson played Kano, Tadanobu Asano played Raiden, among other important cast members. Additionally, the script for the first Mortal Kombat movie was written by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which focuses on the story of Russo and Oren Uziel.
But back on topic, it didn’t take long for McQuoid to be given priority, according to various sources, as six months after Jeremy Slater was hired to write the script (known to be the creator of Moon Knight), Deadline reported that Warner Bros. had made the decision to have the Australian filmmaker take the reins on the project..
In this sense, the fact that McQuoid has officially returned for the second installment is not surprising, thanks to the fact that the reception by the public was quite good, as could be seen on HBO Max. Instead, critics went so far as to say that it was a “dumb, old-fashioned new attempt to transport the classic fighting game to the big screen that’s worth a drunken night at best.” However, the figures showed that the project had enough potential for a sequel, since the film received its respective praise in terms of direction, visual effects and action sequences, which have a fast pace that sticks to the nature of the game.
Mortal Kombat story
In case you haven’t seen it yet, the Mortal Kombat movie was centered around the origin of Cole Young, a character that was created specifically for the adaptation, who discovers his heritage from the ninja Hanzo Hasashi, also known as Scorpion. Laterally, the rivalry between the latter and Sub-zero is addressed, while the gore action seen in video games was maintained. Cole’s mission was to defend Earthrealm from the sorcerer Shang Tsung and Outworld forces in a grand voyage.
Despite the fact that the film never showed a tournament and the references to mythology were very few -something quite criticized by the fans-, the expectations about the sequel are maintained with the hope that they will go deeper in the second installment. In fact, another point of criticism was the creation of their characters, but with McQuoid at the helm it could be a good sign that the 2021 version of Paul WS Anderson’s 1995 Mortal Kombat comes with more potential.
Ultimately, with the return of McQuoid, fans are likely to be pleasantly surprised by the sequel to the video game. So far, Slater has been working on the script for six months and everything seems to indicate that the production of the sequel is close; Although the members of the new cast are not yet known, fans are speculating who will return for Mortal Kombat 2, since many died in the first film. However, the Shang Tsung of Chin Han hinted that death was only the beginning for enemies. And considering that in the game the characters can come back to life, there will surely be more than one in the sequel to Mortal Kombat 2.