The Rise, Fall & Rebirth of The Mortal Kombat Movie

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]By the mid90s, Mortal Kombat hysteria had already taken the world by storm.

[00:00:05]But when 1995's Technoblaring Karate Party hit the big screen and became one of the best video game adaptations ever, it reached an all new level of frenzy.

[00:00:15]The Mortal Kombat official website became one of the top 10 most visited sites on the internet. Over 300 unofficial fan pages were created with most of them excitedly discussing the sequel. Kids like me were doing literal karate in the garage with our friends for hours, blaring the soundtrack that had just reached number 10 on the Billboard Top 200. All before we retired for the night to eat pizza and play more Mortal Kombat on our Super Nintendos and Sega Genesis consoles. Producer Lawrence Kasanov used their even further growing popularity to proudly announce a sequel that would best 1995's Mortal Kombat in nearly every way. bigger fights, better special effects, and more of our favorite characters from the games than you could ever imagine. In reality, Mortal Kombat Annihilation would end up as one of the most disappointing films of all time, right next to Batman and Robin and the Street Fighters of the world. Good luck with that new one.

[00:01:10]Today's mystic and mythical journey to a nether realm called Disappointmentsville will tell the story of a production that was far too impatient for its own good that replaced fan- favorite actors quicker than you could say toasty and eventually display an obviously incomplete film shamelessly across theater screens worldwide. This is the story of how a franchise took all the hype and goodwill that the world could offer and crashed it through the floor, level after level, until it suffered a staggering 79% week 2 box office drop, killing an explosive feature film franchise for more than 20 years.

[00:01:46]>> Get over here >> and let's find out what the >> happened to Mortal Kombat Annihilation.

[00:01:55]The screenplay for Annihilation is credited to Brent Freriedman and Bryce Zable based on a story conjured by producer Lawrence Kasinoff, John Tobias, and Joshua Wexler. But according to those two, most of the direction of the film was already set in stone before they even showed up. Freriedman recalled that their job was simply to refine what Threshold Entertainment had already planned and pitched a new line cinema.

[00:02:18]Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat and eventual Resident Evil director Paul WS Anderson was being courted for an obvious return to the director's chair, but he declined and instead went on to make his magnum opus Event Horizon. Anderson politely said that he felt like he had accomplished everything that he'd set out to do with the first film. In truth, he also didn't want to deal with Lawrence Kasinoff again after his experience butting heads with the producer in the past. in what would be a recurring theme in this story. Kasanov didn't look for a replacement and instead decided to promote from within.

[00:02:53]And he did so promoting Mortal Kombat director of photography John Leonetti to the director's chair. Which is not to say that was a bad choice. Anderson himself credits Leonetti with being instrumental to the first film success and guiding him through his first big Hollywood studio production. What may have been a mistake, however, is Kasanov continuing to promote position after position in an effort to replace important specialty crew members. It's always nice to reward the people who got you there, sure, but in this case, it led to a lot of people in positions that they didn't necessarily have the experience for on a big budget studio production promising to blow the previous film away, especially when the studio had a hard release date deadline and no patience for wiggle room, even when it came to its main actors. The only returning actors from Mortal Kombat in Annihilation would be Robin Shu as Liu Kang, Tissa Sodto as Katana, and Keith Cook, who wasn't even playing the same character, swapping Reptile for Subzero. Christopher Lambbear couldn't or wouldn't return as Raiden due to scheduling conflicts and a script he wasn't enthusiastic about. Johnny Cage was out when Lyndon Ashb was also unimpressed with the script and unhappy that he felt like his contractual sequel contract hadn't been honored appropriately. Same story for our Sonia Blade and badass Bridget Wilson. How are you going to let Veronica Bond walk and expect to replace her? Man, >> that Veronica Vaughn is one piece of ace.

[00:04:24]>> Not that newcomer Sandra Hess didn't give it her all. Oh well, at least we have a new Johnny Cage and Chris Conrad.

[00:04:32]Wait, did they just kill Johnny Cage in the first 10 minutes of the film? They just snapped Johnny Cage's neck like he was a Grand Theft Auto NPC working the checkout counter at a Piggly Wiggly, a move that Kasanov later defended as a Game of Thrones type twist. Thanks, pal, but don't touch the classes. A litany of new cast members were introduced such as Lyn Red Williams as Jax and the more than capable James Remar did his best to fill Raiden's straw hat. Christopher Lambbear is a distinct personality that's hard to replace. But Remar's charismatic performance was a rare highlight for Annihilation. Even as they turned him into a mortal and gave him a slim, shady hairo, Cobra's scary ass bad guy, Brian Thompson played Shiao Khan with an intimidating edge alongside a litany of bad guys from Synindell to Shiva and the absolutely ridiculousl looking Matarro. Prolific stunt performer JJ Perry would have to pull triple duty on the production as Cyrax, Noob Saibot, and even Scorpion when Chris Casamasa left to work on the previously mentioned Batman and Robin.

[00:05:35]There were so many characters added to the script that we don't have time to do them justice in this video. Much like the production had no chance of giving them their fair shake of screen time in the film. Notable performers Ray Park, later set to portray Darth Maul in the Star Wars franchise, and Tony Jaw were given early career opportunities that bolstered the stunt performances of the film as well. The script tried hard to cash the checks that the studios Miles were writing. Not only was it stuffed with as many characters from the games as possible, but there were countless ambitious action sequences and wildly inconvenient locations. Whereas the first movie was mainly filmed in California and Thailand, Annihilation travels to Israel, Jordan, the UK, and back to Thailand. Multiple fame stories came from the production's lofty travel schedule. The cast and crew were served fresh monkey brains while on location in Jordan. A moth had to be surgically removed from the first assistant director's ear in Bangkok. And a hurricane blew away an entire base camp during an attempt to film in the Welsh copper mines in Paris Mountain.

[00:06:41]Meanwhile, director John Leonetti was promising the media that even the worst fight sequence in Annihilation was better than any single fight sequence featured in the previous film. And that's not true in any realm. But it wasn't due to lack of trying. With seemingly everyone pulling double duty somewhere, Robin Shu choreographed much of the martial arts action himself when legendary stunt director Pat Johnson was promoted to second unit director. Just one of the many dominoes of an evershifting crew. Visual effects were headed up by industry bets Chuck Kamitzky of Terminator 2 3D and Allison Sevich, who worked as a visual effects production supervisor on Terminator 2.

[00:07:20]It's hard to understand how a visual effects team this talented produced the film that we saw before us, but the entire production was up against impossible deadlines with an over ambitious script and a crew spread across the world working together via early high-speed T1 lines. Kazanov would later admit that the special effects in the film were not complete at the time of release and that the entire thing had to be released unfinished. He says that the studio flat out told him they did not care if the film was finished or not. It would release in November of 1997, come hell or high water, no matter how bad it looked. And boy oh boy did it look bad. The result of this was detrimental across the board. The script was changed and gutted on the regular.

[00:08:04]Entire scripted set pieces were cut from the film or stripped down to the bolts.

[00:08:09]Freriedman was told to take epic four-page long battles and cut them down to two-page fight sequences between two characters. Emotional arcs were completely removed, and the entire movie suffered massive casualties to its original vision. Even a possible return of Johnny Cage as a ghost or apparition was cut from the film, although that sounds ridiculous in and of itself. As promised, Mortal Kombat Annihilation opened to the masses of excited fans, myself included, on November 21st, 1997.

[00:08:39]While the first week went as planned, and the film took first place at the box office, the word of mouth and critical reception was detrimental.

[00:08:47]Annihilation's box office dropped a staggering 79% in its second week. The film made on a $30 million budget ended up with a $51 million hall worldwide that was less than half of what the first film achieved. I can say that from firsthand experience that it was one of the most shocking declines in quality from movie to movie that I've ever experienced in my life. From week 1 to week two, the box office reflected that shocking gap between expectation and reality. Though an immediate sequel had previously been planned, the disappointment of Annihilation had provided a finisher as strong as any game has offered over the years. Still, a third film tried to eek its way out of development years later. It was to be titled Mortal Kombat Devastation and featured the return of Christopher Lambbear and Lynden Ashby, who both spoke positively of the script. Filming was supposed to begin in 2004 when Hurricane Katrina destroyed proposed filming locations in Louisiana, and an ongoing legal dispute over the sale of Midway Games and the Mortal Kombat rights to Warner Brothers killed the project entirely. Kasanov would openly regret not delaying the film by 6 months to bring back cast members and finish effects. Graders Ed Boon and John Tobias consider Annihilation the low point of the franchise as a whole, as do many fans. The games continued to thrive and the film franchise finally revived in 2021 with a sequel finally driven by Johnny Cage due out this October.

[00:10:18]The best thing you can say about Mortal Kombat Annihilation today is that it's a spectacle of bad of sorts. It's memorable in the sense that it's so horrible in every way, giving it a somewhat of a distinct cult of personality. But it's hard to forget walking out of the theater as a 12-year-old feeling drunk, even though you didn't know what the hell that even meant at that time. In many ways, it was the kind of fatality that you could never forget, even if you kind of want to. And that, my friends, is what the [ __ ] happened to Mortal Kombat Annihilation. There are moments in history that will always be tied to a specific memory where you were. These are historical events that have changed the course of history. Moments that have altered the course of existence. My nana always talks about where she was the day Kennedy was shot. I remember where I was the day I discovered >> video games had evolved and the '9s came out swinging. This decade had balls.

[00:11:24]Things were gross, weird, and violent.

[00:11:26]MTV advertised like this.

[00:11:32]You like fun hair metal? Good, good, good. Yeah, you. We got Sound Garden and Allison Chains. And video games are no longer just cute and familyfriendly.

[00:11:41]Things like Night Trap, Doom, and of course, Mortal Kombat altered the narrative. Despite how tame things may look now, people lost their [ __ ] over these. There were congressional hearings. the creation of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

[00:11:56]All this did was make these games more popular, which brings us to the Year of Our Lord, 1995, and history in the making. So, let's gush, defend, and all around celebrate the over-the-top '90s classic, Mortal Kombat.

[00:12:13]>> Mortal Kombat.

[00:12:15]I think most people either forget or just don't talk about how this isn't the same vibe that the first couple of games were about. Mortal Kombat basically invented its own tone in regards to the source material. I mean, New Line basically stated that they weren't making an adaptation of the video game, but an adaptation of the story the video game was based on. The games had black humor for sure, but but things were mean and over the top. But with the movie, Anderson went a different route. He leaned into the fantasy and the humor.

[00:12:46]Mortal Kombat is what fantasy action looks like through the guise of '90s pop culture, a violent video game, and a major Hollywood studio. But for Mortal Kombat, how do you translate a game whose story was always a set dressing for fighting and gore? And maybe my Sega game was missing the booklet, but I don't remember the first two games especially going allin on an epic story.

[00:13:07]But even if they did, and maybe I was missing something, the games were really for fighting first and foremost.

[00:13:13]Anderson and Kevin Dron really gave their own spin and and fleshed things out their own way. The mid90s still had the remnants of the8s macho boom. You know, only filtered through the changing times. Yet, what I love the most is that we hadn't yet evolved quite enough to where things needed grounding. I mean, look how everyone's introduced. Shang Tsung, played by Carrie Hiroyuki Tagawa, murders Liu Kang's brother in this dark dream. And then we get introduced to Lou himself in some industrial dank setting with revenge on his mind. Bridget Wilson's Sonia Blade comes in like Ellen Ripley beating down club patrons and taking fools out with her pumpaction shotgun.

[00:13:54]Then the Vanam inspired Johnny Cage played by the scene stealing Lyndon Ashby who gives us that perfect Lionheart inspired '90s fight choreography rounds things out cementing our trio of heroes. It's clear that Anderson and Company are giving us a labor of love. And they have three unique and smart ways of setting everyone up. I mean, yeah, it's a little cheesy and over the top, but the '9s knew no other way.

[00:14:21]>> Where's Kano?

[00:14:24]Where is >> And even if they rush through the mythology, and they do, every main character is developed enough that you want to follow them on their combating journey. Christopher Lambert, which I recently learned is pronounced Lambbeair, minus the uh Midwest accent.

[00:14:40]Yet, in my childhood, American Trailers said this.

[00:14:44]>> Christopher Lambert.

[00:14:45]>> Listen, I'm too old to change now, but he is and will always be the man.

[00:14:49]Christopher Mothering Lambbear.

[00:14:52]>> Raiden is the guide of sorts, preparing and coaching our team for what's to come and basically being the exposition dump for the audience. Shan Connory is actually offered the role first. True story, but declined so he could play more golf, which may be the most Scottish answer I've ever heard. Now, a lesser actor could have totally sank this character. I mean, hell, even a good one could have had issues. I mean, look at James Remar. He couldn't give Raiden the same presence. And I enjoy the guy's work. But Lambert took this sarcastic god who for all intents and purposes should be Asian, but uh you got to love the French. They don't give a [ __ ] And to be fair, the nationalities are all over the place in this movie. It towards the '9s and Twitter wasn't a thing.

[00:15:41]And so Lambert took the role and made it his own. Without the casting of Lambert, you wouldn't have the heart. the Sedartha like fairy man to guide our trio physically and spiritually. Hell, he even puts his thumb on the scale when necessary.

[00:16:00]One thing Anderson doesn't get enough credit for is set design and location.

[00:16:04]When the great lead Robin show, I mean, this guy was the man in the 90s, shows up to avenge his brother's death, we get a gorgeous and real holy temple in Thailand's ancient capital. That was shot on location in Thailand. And believe me, it makes a difference to have actual locations populate your mystical movie. But when things were stage sets, they still had a unique look and design that gives Mortal Kombat a distinct feel. The dining hall, which I love because they could have organized it in a way where everyone would eat and have a space cleared for fights, but then just decide to dump all the food and drink on the ground like it was a lastminute decision. On Shang Tsung's island somewhere, there is a chef who is pretty pissed off. Not to mention the beauty that is Scorpion's Lair, which ironically is not in the original script, but added in re-shoots. The fight is great, the fatality is unique, but damn, if this ain't the perfect mix of fantasy and horror. Now, this didn't have the same punch as the Jackie Chan films did of the same era, or if you compare it to something we have nowadays like The Raid, but back then, these were pretty great and even used the famous Wire Fu before The Matrix helped make it a western staple of the time. Besides the iconic scorpion fight, Sonia Blade uses her thighs to break Kano's neck.

[00:17:17]And Shang Tsung got the classic spike pit to the chest. All memorable, all executed perfectly for what the movie was trying to achieve. All tied around the best casting choice of a bad guy to this day. Tagawa gets the credit he deserves. Sure, but I'm here to heap a bunch more. His costume, tone, mannerisms. I mean, you don't strike gold this many times. Listen to his line delivery.

[00:17:42]It has begun.

[00:17:45]>> Scorpion and Subzero, deadliest of enemies, but slaves under my power.

[00:17:53]>> It has all the cadence and embellished style like he's on Broadway. But he holds himself physically like he's just casually laying down the law. Dawa is Shang Tsung. There seem to be rules in place yet are just broken constantly, and it makes everything that much more fun. Like we get a couple sanctioned beach fights and Goro is pretty legit, but then Subzero just tries to casually murder Liu Kang. The henchmen try to kill the whole group and not once is there a form bracket or some sort of signup sheet on who is fighting who. And all of it comes full circle with the amazing and classic soundtrack. How hip and cool was Techno Syndrome?

[00:18:36]Now I can't show much YouTube. This soundtrack was everything. Of course, it's dated now, but even the film was wise enough to use the title song over and over.

[00:18:54]>> Of course, the immortals, Tracy Lords.

[00:18:57]Wait, what? Weird.

[00:18:59]>> I'm blowing this joint.

[00:19:01]>> The character designs are pretty authentic without the need to uh X-Men them up. While everyone's intro is pop culture memorable, it may not mean much to the people who didn't see this when it came out. But man, Scorpion and Subzero's entrance is still one of the most oh [ __ ] moments in movie history.

[00:19:22]>> Got that radio handy?

[00:19:28]a product of its time that once again proves that the '9s just don't get the credit it deserves and somehow didn't receive much blowback from the fan base and actually hails as one of the very few to be adopted by it. Kano was Japanese American before this came out and ever since.

[00:19:45]>> I love punctuality in a woman.

[00:19:47]>> Hey, do not pester me or I will cut your hearts out like I did to that [ __ ] partner of yours.

[00:19:55]>> Ko wins. It's like a mirror reflecting the past.

[00:20:00]>> Which brings me back to where we began, reminiscing, thinking about a 10-year-old me watching Mortal Kombat in theaters, the magic of being blown away.

[00:20:10]And now, as a man with gray in his beard, I can appreciate the oddities, vibrant, bright colors, the fun creative decisions, and the innocence that comes with being one of the earliest adaptations of its kind. Yes, Mortal Kombat is showing its age. What was once cool does come off more like schllock, but you can't stop the aging process.

[00:20:32]You can only age gracefully. And so, Mortal Kombat has to exist purely in the context of a simpler time. What sticks out most is the energetic and likable cast that carries it all. Show had a physical presence that others have yet to match in the role. Wilson is believably badass with a likable bite.

[00:20:53]Ashb is naturally engaging with flawless comedic timing. Tagawa did so well that he became the condory of Shang Tsung.

[00:21:01]Every actor who ends up playing the role will be compared to him for the rest of time. Plus, we got the Highlander, the god of thunder, played by an American-born French king himself, [ __ ] Lambbear.

[00:21:19]>> Sorry.

[00:21:22]Mortal Kombat.

[00:21:24]>> Get over here.

[00:21:26]>> While Mortal Kombat is a global phenomenon in the world of video games, its movie presence almost died via a gruesome fatality after only the second entry. 2026 has not only a Street Fighter adaptation coming out, but a long- aaited and slightly delayed Mortal Kombat 2. That movie only exists because the popular and successful 2021 iteration survived development hell and natural disaster. But what character in the series is potentially a death curse?

[00:21:56]What actor did his research by actually playing the games? And how did Jackie Chan help with the fight choreography for the movie? All this and more as we seek out a flawless victory in our search to find out what the happened to Mortal Kombat 2021.

[00:22:14]The fate of Earth Realm is in our hands.

[00:22:18]>> First, let's do a brief history on the game. Mortal Kombat came to be when Capcom Street Fighter 2 was sweeping the nation in the arcade scene. Midway Games asked Ed Boon and John Tobias to create a combat game that could release within a year. At the time, quality wasn't necessarily the focus, as Midway had no idea what the game would become, and only wanted to capitalize on what would become the fighting game craze of the time. What they got was a game that would sweep arcades with its action, blood, and fatalities, as well as piss everyone off from an entire generation of parents to Congress. It would move from the arcades to the home console market on what became known as Mortal Monday. And with the popularity of video game movies like Super Mario Bros. in 1993 and Double Dragon in 1994, it would become a major motion picture in no time. Street Fighter beat it to the punch again, releasing in 1994. But Mortal Kombat would ultimately win the day in budget, critical response, and fan reception. What was originally part of a three-picture deal was immediately put on hold after the sequel came out.

[00:23:25]For as huge a hit as Mortal Kombat was, Mortal Kombat Annihilation did its best to, well, annihilate the franchise. They lost their writers and director as well as some of the principal cast in addition to killing off a fan favorite character from the first movie, Johnny Cage. For as much grief as the first movie received for its rough CGI, the sequel was basically released unfinished. According to interviews years later, it was a box office bomb with both critics and fans hating what they were seeing on screens. The original plan was to start production on the third film immediately after the release of Annihilation, but the holiday season proved to not be a fruitful one, and that was put on hold. Many attempts were made to get the series back on track, but as you will see, it would be decades before the series would see a theatrical release again. We almost saw the return of the franchise in the early 2000s that would have mixed the original cast with some newbies. This actually got far enough into the process that sets were actually built, but they were unfortunately destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and the production was cancelled entirely. There was another false start with director Kevin Tangerin after he made a web series called Mortal Kombat Legacy. It seemed like this would turn into a film franchise, but after 19 short episodes, that's all we ever got.

[00:24:46]And the series entered limbo yet again.

[00:24:49]The stall continued a couple more years until modern horror royalty James Juan signed on to be a producer of the new film in August of 2015. A little over a year later in November of 2016, Australian Simon McCoy, who had only made a couple of short films, was brought on as director to make his feature film debut. McCoy originally turned down the offer until he read the screenplay by firsttime writer Greg Russo and decided it would be a hit. And then in May of that same year, the movie was finally announced as going into pre-production with filming taking place in South Australia. The initial release date was set for March 5th, 2021. The cast that was sought after was much different than what we ended up with in theaters. Vin Diesel, Joel Edertton, Liam Niss, Jason Mimoa, Megan Fox, Ronda Rousey, and Tony Ja were all rumored at one point, but as exciting as those are, they all fell through. Joe Tasslam would be the first person to be cast in the project and the Raid Redemption actor would be tabbed to play fan favorite Subzero in July of 2019. Tasslam grew up playing the video game but was nervous to do the source material justice and almost didn't take the role until his son pushed him in the right direction.

[00:26:06]He was thrilled when he first put on the uniform, taking multiple selfies and sharing his excitement with the rest of the cast and crew. He was so good at his job, in fact, that the director asked him to slow down his movement as the camera was having a hard time picking it up. This reputation wasn't helped when actor Mod Brooks became terrified when he made the mistake of watching the raid redemption and realized that he had a fight scene with Tasslam. The casting announcements would follow in bulk in the next month in August when Macad Brooks, Tatanobu Asano, CC Stringer, and Ludy Lynn were tapped to play Jax, Raiden, Molina, and Liu Kang. Later that same month, more popular characters from the series would be announced with the castings of Kano, Scorpion, Sonia, and Shang Tsung going to Josh Lawson, Heryuki Sonata, Jessica Mcnam, and Chin Han. The actor who portrayed Kano in Mortal Kombat Legacy, Darren Shalavi, was actually offered the part, but he sadly passed away before production began. And this actually marks the second actor to play the character of Kano to pass away after Trevor Goddard actually passed away in 2003. So, somebody please protect Josh Lawson. He was one of the best parts of the movie after all.

[00:27:20]>> Ko wins.

[00:27:24]You [ __ ] beauty. The final two actors cast would be new character Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan, and Kung Lao, played by Jackie Chan, stunt team member Max Wang, who ended up helping with fight choreography for the entire movie, not just his own scenes. The cast prepared for the roles in a variety of different ways. Some actors like Tasslam, Brooks, and Lynn were all massive fans of the previous movies and video games and saw the casting as dreams coming true. Others though like McName Wang and especially Sonata had no prior knowledge or experience with the games. Sonata dove head first and played the games himself to get into the character. He joked that he lost every time but that it was a valuable experience. He even discovered fans had photoshopped his face onto the body of Scorpion after he already accepted the role. To keep the spirit of the source material going, Lynn purchased the current Mortal Kombat game on the Nintendo Switch to play during production. As he was a lifelong fan of the games and wanted to do his character right after the previous Liu Kang actor, Robin Shu, became a bit of a hero.

[00:28:31]Shooting began in September 2019 in Adelaide, Australia with a final shooting budget of $55 million. Simon McCoy was thrilled to shoot in his home country and was proud to show off the landscapes and use the visual effects houses and worldclass studio spaces that gave the film its life to replicate Outworld on screen. The production filmed in an abandoned coal mine called the Black Hill Quarry. While he joked that nobody wanted to shoot there with everyone in costumes and the camera tricks used, it became a whole new world. The first cut of the movie would be slapped with the dreaded NC17 rating.

[00:29:09]While the goal was certainly an R rating to do the source material right and bring the adult millennial fan base to the theater, an NC17 rating is simply unmarketable unless you're terrifier.

[00:29:20]McCoy hired an additional editor to trim the blood and violence. This is ironic as the original 1995 movie intentionally went after an R rating, but studio mandates forced it to be edited down to a wider audience, resulting in a PG-13.

[00:29:36]One scene that wasn't technically cut, but was actually never filmed due to co 19 was an ending where Cole and Sonia Blade pull up to a movie studio to recruit fan favorite Johnny Cage, who was conspicuously absent from this movie. His absence was always the plan though, as the producers feared that he would be too big a personality and clash with the other big personalities in the movie and thus saved him for a potential sequel. Though, we do get a little tease at the end. Carl Urban and the fans thank you. While plenty of fans lament about the character of Cole Young, it was another character Jax and his actor that was the biggest problem on set.

[00:30:14]Macd Brooks reportedly earned a reputation for being hard to work with and get along with. One evening, he kept an exhausted cast and crew into severe overtime just so he could try different lines and takes for his final fight scene. He also brought his partner to the shoot who allegedly treated the cast as her own PA. About halfway through the production, he became aware of rumblings that the producers were considering replacing him with another actor.

[00:30:42]Instead of changing course, he doubled down and became even more unpleasant to work with. Whether he changed or he was just too good as the character, he is back for the sequel. So hopefully the behind-the-scenes drama was at a minimum this time or he's going to get Johnny caged. While the movie would be unfortunately delayed by CO 19 shuttering movie theaters across the country, the hype was certainly real.

[00:31:05]The Redband YouTube trailer became the biggest of all time over a 4-day span.

[00:31:10]It hit 116 million views, which beat out other extremely popular R-rated movies like Logan and Deadpool 2, which had previously held the record.

[00:31:20]>> My research shows that there's realms and species that we didn't even know existed.

[00:31:25]>> Mortal Kombat would be released on April 23rd, 2021, and make $84 million on its $55 million budget. While that may not seem like a massive success, it was still early on in the postcoid world and the movie was also released on HBO Max at the exact same time. Fans loved it, you know, apart from the Cole character.

[00:31:47]And while critics found it middling, the numbers were there. It was viewed at home by millions on the streaming platform and even became the fifth most pirated film of 2021. Not what the studios want to hear, but hey, at least it shows that we wanted more. The long and complicated road for a third Mortal Kombat movie took over 20 years. But when it was all said and done, it was more than enough to do the IP justice.

[00:32:11]Now, after delays of its own, Mortal Kombat 2 is finally set to shoot for a flawless victory of its own. But the 5-year gap to get to that movie is a story for another day. For now, we will avoid Outworld as best we can, and you all know what the happened to Mortal Kombat 2021.

[00:32:34]Thank you for clicking on our video everybody. If you like what you saw here, please make sure you like the video and subscribe and share with your friends who like this sort of content.

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