Mortal Kombat movie producer Todd Garner says the studio did not fully understand what it had with the 2021 movie, which is why so much of the film took place in the same fighting pit.
GamesRadar+ reports that during a virtual press conference, Garner said the first film was limited by budget and the studio’s expectations before release.
Quite frankly, in the first movie, the studio didn’t know what they had. So we were in that fighting pit for like 75% of the movie, just because of the budget.
Todd Garner
This was actually one of the biggest criticisms of the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie. While the film had the violence, fatalities, and recognizable characters fans expected, many of its fights took place in plain, rocky environments instead of the more varied arenas players know from the games.
The character and story development also suffered because of it, as the Pit was essentially the hub everyone teleported from to do short scenes and then come back. The original movie also got lots of criticism for including an original main character, so the sequel has to stick with this choice.
However, the series creator Ed Boone recently revealed that Cole Young almost made it into MK1 as a kameo fighter, but the studio didn’t have enough time to implement him.
Garner said the sequel is taking a different approach from the original, and for Mortal Kombat 2, the goal was to visit more of the realms fans already know, rather than keeping most of the action in one repeated location.
The sequel’s larger cast should help diversify the locales and the plot points, as well as show off some of the series iconic arenas like The Living Forest, The Dead Pool, The Soul Chamber, Shao Kahn’s Arena, and much more of the Outworld.
Mortal Kombat 2’s expanded roster includes Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn, Desmond Chiam as King Jerrod, Ana Thu Nguyen as Queen Sindel, Damon Herriman as Quan Chi, and CJ Bloomfield as Baraka.
Mortal Kombat 2 isn’t the only fighting game movie slated for this year, as the Street Fighter movie is set for October 2026.
Mortal Kombat 2 is out in the cinemas this Friday, May 8.
