Warner Bros. latest animated project, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms is now available in the UK. The film is a direct followup to last year’s Scorpion’s Revenge and completely ups the ante when it comes to translating the franchise trademark action to the screen. You can expect plenty of blood and stomach-turning fatalities. Battle of the Realms certainly doesn’t hold back.
We recently sat down with Patrick Seitz, who voices Scorpion, to discuss his role as Scorpion and all things Mortal Kombat. Here’s what he had to say…
One of the first things I wanted to ask, especially for people who haven’t watched it yet or are going to, is where do we find Scorpion in Battle of the Realms?
Things are not great for him as the movie commences, but he is a proactive guy. He’s a never say never kind of guy. He makes, he makes his own opportunities, which I think a lot of us can relate to. In the last year and a half that we’ve been dealt a bad hand, but you make the most of it not that most of us are sort of parlaying our opportunities into, you know, blood-soaked vengeance or anything, but there are bits of the Scorpion experience that we can maybe incorporate into our own lives that are not so homicidal. Just live, laugh, love variant of Scorpion where you really figure out what it is you want? And how you’re going to get it. And then you do it.
I mean, it’s an interesting thing. The first film is definitely on brand all about all about the vengeance. And in this one, it’s interesting, because, you know, he is still him. But having gotten that vengeance, he has to sort of decide whether or not he’s just going to sort of peace out. And, you know, let the world, you know, save itself or is he going to sort of get on board grudgingly or, you know, uncertainly to sort of help, you know, serve a cause that is bigger than his own needs or wants. It’s sort of an interesting turn, I thought.
Actually, that leads on to my next question. Because the Scorpion that we get in the first film, like you said, is very much centred on this idea of vengeance. What do you think the Battle of the Realms does for Scorpion in terms of opening up the world of Mortal Kombat?
I mean, it definitely gives him an excuse to have some great interactions with Sub-Zero and there’s so much going on in this movie even in the you know, the time that we get with Scorpion and with Sub-Zero with the two of them together sort of interstitial to the actual, you know, Mortal Kombat capital M capital K that is going on with the other characters. It gives them a lot of time some personal growth but he really does have to decide like, you know, do I let the world go hang?
I’ve got what I need, or at least care enough about the world at large to not want it to be destroyed which is an interesting tag and you know, interspersed with his fighting with Sub-Zero, it’s interesting to me because he does get the old idea of like Hey, I’m you on the other side of this thing that you were chasing, like you’re justified in wanting vengeance, I get why you want vengeance. But let me tell you as somebody who’s existing on the other side of that chasm. It’s not going to magically fix everything…
And maybe there are times when you have to put your own needs aside to be a little bit more of a team player, which I think is definitely not something that was in Scorpion’s DNA. But, you know, he came to realise He’s like Hey, you want to murder me and I get that and that’s fair. But also, maybe we can put that on the backburner long enough to do the world a solid? And it’s amazing to me as well because nobody has plot armour. They’re watching these fights and wow that just happened. That’s the great thing about this franchise… they don’t do anything in half measures.
In the games, the results were very much down to the player. But I liked the fact they took that kind of characteristic whereby the strongest characters could lose and maybe the lesser-known characters win.
It sort of cheats that feeling to the viewer that you have to play the game. I mean obviously it all comes down to, you know, if you’re playing the CPU or if you’re playing against another actual person, but there is that, that excitement and that immediacy of like, it’s anyone’s game. I could win, I could lose and the way they’ve approached the characterization of the tournament’s and such you still don’t have any active control. There’s that sort of, you know, latent excitement of like, Man, this could go in either way. I’m not taking a bet either way on this.
You’ve been voicing Scorpion for quite a while now across different projects as well. So, what was it about Scorpion for you that kind of went… “that’s the character for me”
When we were auditioning back in the day and you know, something about my read, thankfully, whatever that was, you know, clicked with the folks making decisions. But I think what resonates with me with him personally, and maybe they felt that in the read and went Yeah, good fit. good fit, is he’s just sort of an experience. I mean, he is wronged and is a man that is pursuing vengeance and everything else can go hang.
It’s a different world, and he would be Iago. I want this thing. I’m going to do this thing. And after I do this thing, I’m not going to tell you why I did this thing. We’re not going to explain the methodology or what was going on within my own brain. I’m just going to do it. And then I’m not going to say anything. I mean, that is admittedly a bit of a stretch. But I think for as calm and as laid back I am in my day-to-day life. I mean, there’s something in us all I think, especially for actor types that just you know, big vengeance big feelings, big man on a quest. It was definitely about drawing from things in my own life.
I’m kind of new to Mortal Kombat. So, at the moment, I’m just kind of mining through everything and getting used to the characters. Getting used to the deep lore goes through every sort of media type. And it has been a lot of fun. Did you ever play the Mortal Kombat games?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I played. I haven’t played every single one of them. But I’ve played the more recent ones. On like the newer consoles, of course back in the day, just throwing quarter after quarter in the arcade. I am not great at fighting games. Like my brain is not set for memorising move sets or anything.
Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms is directed by Ethan Spaulding (Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, Batman: Assault on Arkham) from a script by Jeremy Adams (Supernatural, Justice Society: World War II) and based on the videogame created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Rick Morales (Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, Batman vs. Two-Face) is Producer. Jim Krieg (Batman: Gotham by Gaslight) is Producer. Executive Producer is Sam Register. Ed Boon (NetherRealm Studios) is Creative Consultant.
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