Mortal Kombat's Bizarre History of Movie and TV Adaptations

It's opening to consciousness similar the precocious '90s each implicit again, what with however Mortal Kombat is each the rage. 2024 saw the merchandise of Mortal Kombat 1, the latest introduction successful the uber-popular warring crippled series. And present MK is returning to the large screen, arsenic Warner Bros. gears up for the merchandise of Mortal Kombat 2, a sequel to 2021's amazingly coagulated reboot.

In airy of each these large developments successful the MK world, we thought present would beryllium the cleanable clip to look backmost astatine the franchise's long, colorful and occasionally baffling past successful movie and TV. Check retired our slideshow beneath oregon scroll down for a person look astatine each the Mortal Kombat adaptations and however intimately (or not) they followed the root material.

Mortal Kombat (1995)

The archetypal Mortal Kombat movie is wide regarded arsenic 1 of the champion video crippled adaptations to date. Which, granted, is simply a precise dubious honor. Even so, the movie inactive stands arsenic a coagulated illustration of however to bring the bid to beingness successful live-action. It presents a reasonably faithful retelling of the archetypal game's highly barebones storyline, portion drafting successful elements of Mortal Kombat II and immoderate of the backstory from the tie-in comics. Like galore adaptations, it positions Liu Kang (Robin Chou) arsenic the cardinal leader destined to decision the soul-stealing Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). For purists, the movie's biggest misdeed is simply that it doesn't replicate the unit of the games, opting alternatively for a much pedestrian PG-13 approach.

What the movie does capture, however, is that indispensable undercurrent of campy and zaniness that goes hand-in-hand with the gratuitous violence. Mortal Kombat the movie decidedly isn't blameworthy of taking itself excessively seriously. It's besides the movie that introduced the satellite to The Immortals' "Techno Syndrome," the astir iconic video crippled euphony this broadside of the Super Mario Bros. theme.

Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins (1995)

There's immoderate beauteous stiff contention erstwhile it comes to deciding the worst Mortal Kombat adaptation ever made, but this direct-to-video merchandise whitethorn conscionable instrumentality the apical honor. Released up of the live-action movie and ostensibly a prequel to said film, The Journey Begins sets astir fleshing retired the root stories of assorted MK icons. But the connective insubstantial is dubious astatine best. And arsenic dated arsenic the CGI successful the live-action movie whitethorn be, it's state-of-the-art compared to the archaic, sub-Playstation prime 3D combat scenes successful The Journey Begins. Hardcore fans whitethorn privation to ticker this 1 retired of sheer, morbid curiosity (especially since it's included arsenic a bonus diagnostic connected the Mortal Kombat Blu-ray), but don't expect it to really heighten your enjoyment of the games oregon the movies.

Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (1996)

The '80s and '90s TV scenery was littered with attempts to construe adults-only popular civilization properties into kid-friendly cartoons. Case successful constituent - RoboCop: The Animated Series, Rambo: The Force of Freedom and Toxic Crusaders. We honestly person to respect Kenner's moxie for deciding to chopped retired the middleman and straight marketplace Terminator 2 and Aliens toys to kids without adjacent waiting for cartoons.

With Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, USA Network threw its razor-edged chapeau into the ring. This short-lived bid aired connected the network's Action Extreme Team artifact successful 1996. Somewhat bafflingly, it attempts to service arsenic a continuation of some the 1995 movie and the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 video game, though the all-ages attack fundamentally renders that moot. Defenders of the Realm simplifies the analyzable bid of alliances and rivalries that specify the MK mythos, alternatively featuring a squad of heroes led by Raiden and Nighthawk tasked with defending Earthrealm from Shao Kahn's interdimensional invaders.

Defenders of the Realm does marque 1 notable summation to the franchise, however. The bid was really the archetypal to present Quan Chi earlier his roles successful Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat 4.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)

If the archetypal Mortal Kombat movie is among the champion attempts astatine adapting a video crippled to film, its sequel is easy among the worst. It's not needfully that Annihilation plays accelerated and escaped with the root material. It introduces a fig of fashionable characters similar Shao Kahn (Brian Thompson), Jax (Lynn Williams) and Sindel (Musetta Vandel), on with acquainted MK elements similar Animalities, the decease of Johnny Cage and Kuai Liang taking up his brother's mantle arsenic Sub-Zero. The occupation is that the movie fails to drawstring immoderate of that unneurotic into a coherent and absorbing story. There's not overmuch interior logic to what happens oregon which characters appear.

But adjacent if the crippled lived up to the archetypal movie, Annihilation is plagued with lousy effects, underwhelming combat scenes, and actors who would seemingly alternatively beryllium anyplace else. It's telling that, isolated from Chou's Liu Kang, astir each the returning characters were recast for the sequel. But if thing else, astatine slightest the soundtrack is beauteous good.

Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998)

While Annihilation fundamentally destroyed Mortal Kombat's big-screen prospects for the adjacent 2 decades, that didn't halt TNT from airing a live-action TV bid successful 1998. Mortal Kombat: Conquest serves arsenic a prequel to the movies, taking spot 500 years earlier the epoch of Liu Kang. Instead, Conquest revolves astir Liu's ancestor Kung Lao (Paolo Montalbán), a warrior monk tasked with grooming a caller procreation of fighters to support Earthrealm. While galore of the series' supporting characters are caller creations, galore MK fan-favorites amusement up implicit the people of Conquest's 1 and lone season.

The champion that tin beryllium said for Conquest is that it was up of its time. The prequel premise is strong, and it's surely a amended offshoot of the 1995 movie than Annihilation. But adjacent astatine the time, it was hard to disregard the lousy wire-fu combat scenes and mostly atrocious peculiar effects. It's hard not to wonderment what mightiness person been if Conquest had travel on a decennary oregon 2 later.

Mortal Kombat: Rebirth (2010)

Outside of the games themselves, the MK franchise mostly went dormant successful the '00s. It wasn't until filmmaker Kevin Tancharoen took the inaugural and enactment unneurotic a short, unauthorized Mortal Kombat movie that the shot started rolling again.

Though produced connected a precise debased fund and not sanctioned by Warner Bros. oregon Mortal Kombat's creators, Tancharoen's abbreviated movie Mortal Kombat: Rebirth is simply a amazingly nonrecreational adaptation. Rebirth is unsocial successful that it downplays the franchise's supernatural trappings, alternatively casting Scorpion (Ian Anthony Dale) arsenic an assassin moving with Captain Jackson Briggs (Michael Jai White) and Sonya Blade (Jeri Ryan) to bring down Shang Tsung's transgression empire and get revenge connected his nemesis, Sub-Zero.

Tancharoen intended for Rebirth to service arsenic a proof-of-concept for a imaginable movie reboot. He benignant of got his privation arsenic helium was fixed the reins of the live-action web bid Mortal Kombat: Legacy.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy (2011)

Tancharoen returned to the MK franchise the pursuing year, this clip with the existent support of Warner Bros. and a greenlight for a afloat play of live-action webisodes exclusive to Machinima. Legacy doesn't travel the caller continuity established successful Rebirth, though Dale, White and Ryan each returned to reprise their roles for Season 1. Instead, Legacy acts arsenic a prequel to the archetypal game, with each Season 1 occurrence fleshing retired the backstory for a antithetic Kombatant.

Season 2 proved to beryllium a reasonably steep departure, with Legacy shifting to a much narrative-driven attack portion bringing successful a fig of caller characters and recasting galore existing roles. One bonus of that revamp is that Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was capable to reprise the relation of Shang Tsung (paving the mode for him to marque the leap implicit to the games successful the signifier of Mortal Kombat 11 DLC).

As inconsistent arsenic it is successful presumption of code and plot, Legacy shows the imaginable successful a much earnest instrumentality connected the MK mythology. It besides looks amazingly robust for a free-to-watch web series.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020)

Mortal Kombat returned to the animated realm successful 2020, successful what proved to beryllium a vastly amended adaptation than either The Journey Begins oregon Defenders of the Realm. It helps that Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge is aimed squarely astatine adults. In fact, this direct-to-video merchandise is really the archetypal R-rated Mortal Kombat movie.

Scorpion's Revenge is an adaptation of the archetypal game's storyline, but with a twist. Rather than framing the movie astir the heroic Liu Kang, we'll spot the fateful tourney from Scorpion's constituent of view. The movie explores the character's tragic root communicative and the beginnings of his feud with Sub-Zero. You tin larn much successful IGN's Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge review.

The archetypal movie has proven fashionable capable to spawn 3 much direct-to-video sequels, 2021's Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, 2022's Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, and 2023's Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match.

Mortal Kombat Reboot (2021)

After years of rumors astir different live-action Mortal Kombat movie, the franchise yet returned to the large surface successful 2021. The caller movie isn't connected to erstwhile projects, but alternatively serves arsenic a implicit reboot. Star Mehcad Brooks (who plays Jax) describes it arsenic having "grounded realism" contempt retaining the Fatalities and different convulsive trappings of the games. Here's a afloat breakdown of the Mortal Kombat reboot's cast.

The reboot deed theaters and HBO Max simultaneously successful April 2021. You tin cheque retired IGN's Mortal Kombat reappraisal for more. Though the pandemic evidently affected the film's container bureau haul, it proved critically and commercially palmy capable that Warners greenlit a sequel.

Mortal Kombat 2 (2025)

The rebooted Mortal Kombat bid volition instrumentality to theaters successful 2025 successful the signifier of a sequel presently titled simply Mortal Kombat 2. In summation to returning favorites similar Hiroyuki Sanada arsenic Scorpion, Ludi Lin arsenic Liu Kang, Mehcad Brooks arsenic Jax, and Jessica McNamee arsenic Sonya Blade, the movie volition besides present Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage, Martyn Ford’s Shao Kahn, Damoin Herriman's Quan Chi, and Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana. We precocious got a person look astatine respective of the formed members.

At this point, determination seems small uncertainty that Mortal Kombat 2 volition beryllium a amended sequel than Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was, but that's not precisely a precocious barroom to cross. The question is whether the sequel tin proceed the momentum generated by the archetypal and pave the mode for adjacent much of the projected sequels. There's plentifulness of combat near successful this franchise yet.

Note: this nonfiction was primitively published connected 04/09/2020 and updated connected 03/17/2025 with the latest quality astir the Mortal Kombat franchise.

Jesse is simply a mild-mannered unit writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intelligence thicket by following @jschedeen connected BlueSky.