Mortal Kombat Producers Reportedly Want More Original Characters In The Sequel

[StormGoddess]

Mortal Kombat Producers Reportedly Want More Original Characters In The Sequel
By Scott Campbell

Fans are definitely enjoying the Mortal Kombat reboot more than critics, with the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes exponentially higher than the aggregated rating, but almost everyone would surely agree that Cole Young is one of the weakest parts of the movie.

Lewis Tan is a charismatic star with an extensive martial arts background, so he can certainly hold his own when it comes to the fight sequences, but Cole is little more than a walking, talking plot device. It wasn’t a shock to discover that his inclusion was mandated by the studio when his entire purpose in Mortal Kombat is to have things explained to him via lengthy exposition dumps, all while following the tried and trusted narrative journey of finding out about his destiny, turning his back on it and then finally embracing it by the third act.

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That’s why it’s a little bit of a surprise to hear from our sources – the same ones who told us Zack Snyder’s Justice League was heading exclusively to HBO Max long before it was confirmed – that the producers are reportedly pushing to introduce more completely original characters in the Mortal Kombat franchise.

It isn’t as if the video game series doesn’t possess a deep and extensive roster of favorites to choose from, and the creation of a brand new protagonist hardly worked like a charm in terms of Cole being a memorable hero, although you can probably bet on him being a playable addition in the next version of Mortal Kombat on consoles. In any case, if the inevitable sequels do throw in some original faces built from the ground up, let’s hope that they’ve at least got some personality about them this time.

Mortal Kombat Producers Reportedly Want More Original Characters In The Sequel

Fans are definitely enjoying the Mortal Kombat reboot more than critics, with the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes exponentially higher than the aggregating rating in terms of reviews, but almost everyone will surely agree that Cole Young is one of the weakest parts of the movie.

wegotthiscovered.com

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Smart move. Take the part fans and newcomers hated the most and double down on it. What could go wrong

 

[Juggs]

I called Cole being a bad addition before the movie ever even came out. I still don’t understand why they would add a completely new character as the main protagonist. If he was a great character with a great backstory, then maybe it would have been okay. But everything about him was generic and lame, even his “special ability” was lame. The beauty of having all of these already established MK characters is that you don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of time on backstory and character development. I get wanting to be able to have freedom on your storytelling so you can make the motivations for your protagonist fit into any story, but it was completely unnecessary all around in this case.

 

[kingjolly]

I don’t mind the addition of new characters. Heck...some characters such as Daryl (The Walking Dead), Harley Quinn, X-23, don’t exist in the source material and they have proven to be quite popular. It just has to be written well and Cole Young just wasn’t.

 

[NoCharge]

But...Why?

 

[CY MasterHavik]

Let's not do that and focus on making Cole less boring. We have enough characters to make a great film. Any new characters they're thinking of can be replace by 3D era characters. Give me Darrius before you give me some random dude.

 

[SHAOLIN]

Quick! Somebody give them a copy of Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

Midway already did the hard work for them.

 

[Barakall]

So WB pushed for this?

 

[RoboCop]

I'm ready for guest characters in movies. Who needs Johnny Cage in the next MK when we can have RoboCop?

 

[chud_munson]

While this may be the case, We Got This Covered has a spotty accuracy record when it comes to leaks, to put it very kindly.

 

[Revy]

Yes! Let the second movie being historically awful curse continue for another 24 years because that's so fucking dumb! In all honesty, Cole & everything about him was stupid which in my opinion should have been Kai & could develop a new friendship & mentor/apprentice relationship with Liu Kang after the death of Kung Lao before the tournament. For the next movie they have all the disposable villains & heroes one could want from nearly 30 years of Mortal Kombat, they're just being stupid by wanting original characters.

 

[GrandMasterson]

Why even call it Mortal Kombat at that point? Fuck I hate Hollywood.

 

[colby4898]

Smart move. Take the part fans and newcomers hated the most and double down on it. What could go wrong

By original characters I thought they meant original MK character, like from the original games... was quickly disappointed.

 

[GLoRToR]

As long as Cole gets fatality'd in the next movie and it becomes a habit of actual MK characters to murder these new additions I'd be fine with it.
Lao dying was a bad move.
Kano dying so early was also a bad move.
Jax and Kano having "magical cybernetics" was the dumbest bad move.
Raiden being asian was an amazing idea, too bad the actor had the acting skill of nicholas cage. Or a bit less.

 

[Zer0_h0ur]

I called Cole being a bad addition before the movie ever even came out. I still don’t understand why they would add a completely new character as the main protagonist. If he was a great character with a great backstory, then maybe it would have been okay. But everything about him was generic and lame, even his “special ability” was lame. The beauty of having all of these already established MK characters is that you don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of time on backstory and character development. I get wanting to be able to have freedom on your storytelling so you can make the motivations for your protagonist fit into any story, but it was completely unnecessary all around in this case.

BC some dude making 6-7 figs with a marketing degree at a fancy school, that prob didn't even deserve his job in the first place, likely told executives that based on his marketing research viewers wanted a surrogate like Cole to keep the story interesting.

 

[Juxtapose]

Interestingly, Quan Chi was introduced in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, a really campy kid's show based on the original trilogy and the first film. It was not a good show, and he was not a good character.

Now, he has a solid following and people have accepted and expect his part in the lore. It'll be interesting to see if the same happens with the likes of Cole.

 

[Marlow]

This sucks, if they put more guest characters into the movies it means there's less of a chance that Mokap makes it in.

 

[GLoRToR]

Interestingly, Quan Chi was introduced in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, a really campy kid's show based on the original trilogy and the first film. It was not a good show, and he was not a good character.

Now, he has a solid following and people have accepted and expect his part in the lore. It'll be interesting to see if the same happens with the likes of Cole.

This, and this allows for MK12 to have Mortal Kombat "guest characters" from WB's own Mortal Kombat movie which makes infinitely more sense than having Garfield the Cat, Homer Simpson, or Tony the Tiger from that cereal commercial using a spoon to kill Goro.
I'm fucking sick of staple characters missing out because they want Beyonce to make a cameo.

 

[John Grizzly]

I'm ready for guest characters in movies. Who needs Johnny Cage in the next MK when we can have RoboCop?

Put Johnny Lawrence in the sequel, you fucking cowards.

 

[Art Lean]

Interestingly, Quan Chi was introduced in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, a really campy kid's show based on the original trilogy and the first film. It was not a good show, and he was not a good character.

Now, he has a solid following and people have accepted and expect his part in the lore. It'll be interesting to see if the same happens with the likes of Cole.

The difference there is this -

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/959241120336068609

"We created Quan Chi for MKM:SZ/MK4 and shared his backstory with producers of the animated series. The cartoon beat the games to market." - John Tobias

So Quan Chi was always an official MK character right from the start, it's just the media he was released in predated the games that he would appear in.

However that said, I'm not saying that new characters in the films are a bad thing, hell I was fine with all the new characters in Conquest, like Taja, Siro, Vorpax, Kreeya and Master Cho, along with Ruby in Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm and of course my namesake in the first MK movie, so I'm not necessarily opposed to it, just as long as they feel inherently part of the world they're in. In fact MK95 had LOADS of background earth realm fighters, including other women, whom I'd actually have enjoyed a little more set-up with rather than nothing but the three heroes and a thin slice of Art in order to make the tournament feel larger, but I don't want them making up more characters when they don't need to. MK has a wealth of characters from loads of backgrounds that are worth exploring, do we really need a Cole Young when he could have been Kobra or Kai (no pun intended)? That said the next movie is meant to be the tournament, so perhaps the larger cast of original characters is indeed just to bolster the earth realm forces to give the tournament that larger scale of fighters we saw in the background of MK95, Journey Begins and Scorpion's Revenge.

If that's the case, there's potential in making it a more Bloodsport-style film with new fighters having a moment in the spotlight for a few fights once the tournament begins and that for me is quite an exciting prospect.

I never want to see another Jimmy Cage though.

 

[RoboCop]

That's like Boba Fett, whose first official appearance was in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

 

[Juxtapose]

This, and this allows for MK12 to have Mortal Kombat "guest characters" from WB's own Mortal Kombat movie which makes infinitely more sense than having Garfield the Cat, Homer Simpson, or Tony the Tiger from that cereal commercial using a spoon to kill Goro.
I'm fucking sick of staple characters missing out because they want Beyonce to make a cameo.

I'm not gonna lie, I would pay good, good money to watch Tony the Tiger duke it out with Goro. Good money.

The difference there is this -

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/959241120336068609

"We created Quan Chi for MKM:SZ/MK4 and shared his backstory with producers of the animated series. The cartoon beat the games to market." - John Tobias

So Quan Chi was always an official MK character right from the start, it's just the media he was released in predated the games that he would appear in.

Yes, but he was also a crap character that no one liked, even when he made it to the games. That seemed to shift around the time of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

That's like Boba Fett, whose first official appearance was in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

I'd completely forgotten about that...

 

[C-Sword]

I'm going to watch the sequel if they kill off Cole Young at the beginning

 

[colby4898]

Interestingly, Quan Chi was introduced in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, a really campy kid's show based on the original trilogy and the first film. It was not a good show, and he was not a good character.

Now, he has a solid following and people have accepted and expect his part in the lore. It'll be interesting to see if the same happens with the likes of Cole.

Only if the game does him better than the film

 

[RoboCop]

I'm going to watch the sequel if they kill off Cole Young at the beginning

It would be kind of poetic if they killed off Cole like they did Cage in the beginning of MK Annihilation, just before bringing Cage on to replace him.