Acclaimed director James Wan expresses his excitement about filming Mortal Kombat 2 with a behind-the-scenes photo.
Wan shared a story on his Instagram account displaying the clapperboard for the Mortal Kombat sequel. This picture showed the slate with the logo for the movie at the bottom and a graphic in the middle of a dragon spiraling around "II". He also captioned the post with the word "Fight".
Producer Todd Garner confirmed in a Twitter post on June 20 that the production for Mortal Kombat 2 began earlier this month. The sequel has been in pre-production since January 2022. Warner Bros. greenlit the follow-up despite the poor critical reception of its predecessor, with Garner claiming that they had "learned from the mistakes" of the previous installment and were "committed to making the best MK2 possible."
The film will see the cast expand as more iconic characters enter the second film. One of the most noted of these is the addition of fan-favorite Johnny Cage, an arrogant actor turned fighter and defender of Earthrealm. Cage will be played by Karl Urban, known best for his roles in The Lord of the Rings, Thor: Ragnarok, Dredd and The Boys. He will be joined by Martyn Ford (Shao Kahn), Damon Herriman (Quan Chi), Tati Gabrielle (Jade), Mehcad Brooks (Jax), Adeline Rudolph (Katana), Ludi Lin (Liu Kang) and more. These actors, as well as returning names such as Lewis Tan (Cole Young) and Jessica McNamee (Sonya Blade), were pictured together in a recent MK2 cast photo.
Mortal Kombat 2 is directed by Simon McQuoid, who also took charge of the 2021 film, with the projects acting as his only two credits as a director. He will be working with a script penned by Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight, The Umbrella Academy, Fantastic Four) based on the video game series created by Ed Boon and John Tobias.
The previous film ended on a cliffhanger as Shang Tsung (Chin Han) was banished from Earthrealm by Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), who swore to train new fighters for the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament. The conclusion set up the mission to recruit more allies in the battle against Outworld, teasing the arrival of Johnny Cage.
There is no official release date for Mortal Kombat 2 at the time of writing. Those who wish to watch the first film can stream it on HBO Max.
Source: Instagram