Last night we took part in a global press conference featuring the cast and crew of Mortal Kombat II ahead of the film’s world premiere. We spent an hour talking about bringing a full-on tournament to life in sequel to the 2021 Mortal Kombat which released to much fanfare back during the pandemic.
We got chance to ask a burning question to screenwriter Jeremy Slater (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) about honouring the near 35-year history of the franchise in games.
GYCO: Were there any specific elements from past Mortal Kombat games you look to for inspiration for the script?
JEREMY SLATER: I’m a fan, but I’m not a fan who spent 30 years enmeshed in this mythology. I’m not the guy who can sort of recall all this stuff off the top of my head. That’s why we really did look to Ed [Boon] and Dominic [Cianciolo] and the entire team over at NetherRealm to be the sort of the little angels on our shoulder and make sure we’re going in the right direction. [They] make sure that these stages that we’re fighting in are the right places, make sure the characters are using the right finishing moves.
If something feels wrong, if something feels inauthentic to the mythology or the games or what the fans have been asking for, they let us know. So we always had them watching to bail us out of trouble.
So for me the job was incredibly easy because I could just go straight to the horse’s mouth, I could go to the people who actually created it and just say, what is it that people have been asking for in the past 30 years that we’ve never been able to deliver? What can we finally give them? The editor would come back and say they love the pit, or they love the blue portal stage and those have turned into some of the most iconic fights in this movie.
A lot of those moves, a lot of those suggestions come straight from the creators. When you have that level of expertise safeguarding [the script] there’s just no way to go wrong.
Karl Urban stars as Johnny Cage, alongside Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, with Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han, and Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion.
Director Simon McQuoid returns to helm the follow up to his explosive 2021 cinematic adventure, from a screenplay by Jeremy Slater, based on the videogame created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. The film is produced by Todd Garner, James Wan, Toby Emmerich, E. Bennett Walsh and McQuoid, and executive produced by Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Slater and Lawrence Kasanoff.
Joining McQuoid behind the camera are director of photography Stephen F. Windon, production designer Yohei Taneda, editor Stuart Levy and costume designer Cappi Ireland, with casting by Rich Delia and music by Benjamin Wallfisch.
New Line Cinema Presents an Atomic Monster/Broken Road Production, a Fireside Films Production, Mortal Kombat II. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Mortal Kombat II will be released in the UK on May 8, 2026 by Warner Bros. Pictures.
