Mortal Kombat sequel could include a new realm

SPOILERS for MORTAL KOMBAT. At long last, Mortal Kombat has arrived, and despite the mixed reviews, I think we can call the film a success as it reportedly gave HBO Max its biggest premiere weekend so far with 3.8 million U.S. households tuning in, as well as taking the top spot at the box-office; In just about every language, that spells sequel.

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While a Mortal Kombat sequel isn’t yet official, we do know that it was envisioned as the first part of a trilogy and that there’s still plenty of MK lore to draw upon. While speaking with Syfy Wire, Mortal Kombat co-writer Greg Russo said that we can expect the sequel to go to other realms beyond Earthrealm and Outworld, most notably Edenia and the various characters who populate it.

In the back of my head, I was always thinking like, ‘Where can I go? Where can the world go so that it’s not painted into a corner?’ And so one of the realms that I felt like it didn’t make sense to introduce in this story, because we were so focused on Earthrealm and Outworld, was Edenia, which is another big realm in the Mortal Kombat universe. And that has a ton of great characters that reside there, their storylines intersect there. My favorite character, Kitana, is a princess in Edenia and it just didn’t feel right to bring her in. There’s other characters too that people love there, like Sindel and Jade and all those characters. So that’s a whole realm that I think is worth exploring, and I have some really cool ideas of what I would do with storylines there.

Another character who we can expect to see in the Mortal Kombat sequel is Johnny Cage, whose involvement was teased at the close of the first film. “We knew that [Cage] was one of the original seven that wasn’t going to appear,” Russo said. “The reason he’s not in the narrative really has to do with Kano’s place in the narrative, because those two characters are very similar and they would just be talking over each other the whole way. So we knew that it was better to save Johnny for hopefully a later story.” What are you hoping to see from a Mortal Kombat sequel?

RELATED: Mortal Kombat: What did you think?

The official synopsis for Mortal Kombat:

In “Mortal Kombat,” MMA fighter Cole Young, accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage—or why Outworld’s Emperor Shang Tsung has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero, an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family’s safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade at the direction of Jax, a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden, an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang, Kung Lao and rogue mercenary Kano, as he prepares to stand with Earth’s greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana—the immense power from within his soul—in time to save not only his family, but to stop Outworld once and for all?

Mortal Kombat is now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, so be sure to check out a review from our own Matt Rooney and let us know what you thought of the film!

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