Mortal Kombat, the 2021 sleeper hit movie, was one of the best new iterations of the long-running video game to be put on film in years. Speculation about there being a sequel started the moment the 2021 film hit the credits scenes. Now fan’s requests have been answered as it was announced via Deadline.com that Mortal Kombat 2 has gone into the scripting stage with Jeremy Slater being picked to write the follow-up to Oren Uziel & Greg Russo’s film.
Slater was head writer on the Marvel/Disney+ series Moon Knight. Slater also is writing to direct Thread for Screen Gems, with James Wan and Atomic Monster producing. His recent scripting credits include the Netflix/21 Laps film Uprising and adapting Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers for Universal and James Wan. He also developed The Umbrella Academy for Netflix/UCP/Dark Horse and was creator and co-showrunner of The Exorcist on Fox.
A big note with this hiring is how much of Slater’s past connects with producer James Wan, the man who produced the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot that this franchise’s timeline is based around. Could this be a hint that Wan is returning to the Producer’s chair for Mortal Kombat 2? Only time will tell.
Based on the video game phenomenon created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, Mortal Kombat was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in April 2021 during the pandemic, opening at No. 1 at the box office and ranking among the top feature titles on HBO Max since the platform launched, and was one of the test-bed titles for WB/HBO used for a dual-release phase of their movies, something that has been very successful for both companies. Mortal Kombat was directed by Simon McQuoid, who produced with Todd Garner, E. Bennett Walsh, and James Wan.
Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Tadanobu Asano, and Chin Han headed the cast. No other deals for the sequel are locked at this point.
Speaking of Mortal Kombat, after announcing the end of support for Mortal Kombat 11 back in July 2021, it seems that someone at NetherRealm Studios has “leaked” that Mortal Kombat 12 is currently in production at the studio.
Jonathan Andersen is a senior production manager at the fighting game studio, and on Thursday he tweeted a photo of his desk. The photo (seen above) showed printouts of artwork from Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Injustice 2 lying on Andersen’s desk. However, at the corner of the photo is his monitor, which shows a file partially called MK12_Mast…
Andersen reportedly removed the image after around 10 minutes, seemingly because it had revealed that NetherRealm was working on the unannounced Mortal Kombat 12. However, it’s believed that the photo may have been a deliberate tease (or a troll) disguised to look like an accident. The monitor also shows part of an email referring to a video that shouldn’t be shared, saying “our fans eagerly scrape the internet for any trace” of Mortal Kombat information, adding: “Take extra care with this material.”
Intentional or not, it looks like those who are waiting and wanting Injustice 3 are going to be taking a back seat for a while longer as NetherRealm looks to capitalize on the success of Mortal Kombat 11, and an upcoming movie, by putting Mortal Kombat 12 into development a lot sooner than people thought would happen. Maybe this time NetherRealm will make our dreams come true and include Ultra Instinct Shaggy as a proper Mortal Kombat fighter…