What's new

Mortal Kombat Movie Release Date: April 16, 2021

After lots of rumoring, various delays, and years' worth of hopes and expectations, the time is finally upon us -- the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie has a release date: April 16, 2021.


The producer, Todd Garner of Broken Road Productions, tweeted the date on Monday afternoon, along with a note to expect a trailer early in 2021. Release is set for both theatres and HBO MAX.
 

Comments

I feel this man, it's been a rotten couple of months, a rotten year. I am so sick of having the stories I love and many grew up with ruined by cooperate suits and hack writers without a hint of imagination in their body. So many franchises stories have gone down the drain with little hope for a return to form, and MK is no exception. Star wars, Mass Effect, Game of Thrones, the list goes on. It seems that no one is interested in making anything for the sake of creating something new or fun anymore, it's all just marketing, and nostalgia bating and money money money. Like god you can't take that shit to the grave with you. I mean what's worth more than creating something that people actually enjoy and can show their friends and bond and for kids to grow up with, with awe and wonder in their eyes like you and me with the original games and movie, the soundtrack, the martial arts what have you. I don't want to get your hopes up to have them dashed in an already shitty year but I do remember the Realm Kast podcast did a video with a producer that works on the movie and I think he said the OG track will be in the film, so it has that at least.

I just hope this movie can give you and many others what they want out of it, and something positive to possibly start the new year with if we end up getting a trailer in January. I sincerely want you continue to succeed in beating back your demons and getting yourself together and I hope that this movie provides you with a soundtrack that lets you close your eyes and become the kid you used to be for at least a little while, to relive the moments that brought you joy.
I hope it can do that for every fan.
This. Plus what's up with the ethnicity swap for Raiden. I find it kind of insulting to the franchise and the fans when they drastically change a character, just to please the PC crowd. The proper way to add diversity would be to introduce brand new characters, not to reconstruct existing ones. I'd feel the same way if they suddenly made Jax or Liu Kang caucasian, for example. I am disappointed by this.
 
This. Plus what's up with the ethnicity swap for Raiden. I find it kind of insulting to the franchise and the fans when they drastically change a character, just to please the PC crowd. The proper way to add diversity would be to introduce brand new characters, not to reconstruct existing ones. I'd feel the same way if they suddenly made Jax or Liu Kang caucasian, for example. I am disappointed by this.
I honestly don't see what's insulting about it when they've been doing that since the very beginning. To quote Ed Boon about how he felt when they actually cast Christopher Lambert in the role in the 95 movie:

Boon: Christopher Lambert did a great job. He brought a lot of his own personal performance to it. We were thinking so literally at the time. We were thinking Raiden is from Asian mythology. We never showed his face that clearly in the game, so we never really defined a race, but we didn't think "the Highlander guy." That wasn't in our heads.

So originally he was meant to be Asian. He's also already been Asian in live action form in Mortal Kombat Legacy Season 2. However there's not even much consistency in how he was portrayed by white actors in MK95, MKA, MK Conquest, MK Mythologies and Legacy Season 1; they have very little in common with one another's portrayal beyond being Caucasian (Lambert in MK95 and Meek in Conquest are probably the most similar, but even then there's the whole inimitable voice and persona that still makes them very different).

Let's not forget that Sub Zero went from being Asian in his unmasked MK2 ending to suddenly being white in MK3. The franchise has always been loose with their representations of characters from production to production.

There's been loads of times that these characters have swapped races and nationalities, and I especially don't consider it an issue with those not from Earth anyway, who's to say what an Edenian or a god should look like.
  • Kitana has been white in MK2, Puerto Rican in the movies, white in Conquest, Asian in Legacy, now Asian in the games.
  • Mileena's face has varied constantly in the games, but she's been white in Annihilation and Conquest, Asian in Legacy, now she's mixed race in MK2021 (and if anyone can be mixed race it's Mileena).
  • Scorpion has been Japanese in the games, white in the movies, white in Conquest, white in Mythologies, Japanese in Legacy, Japanese in MK2021
  • Sub Zero has been Chinese in MK2, white in the follow-up games, white in Mythologies (even though they effectively establish a Chinese Vs Japanese rivalry), white in Defenders of the Realm, white in Conquest and the 90s movies, Japanese in Legacy, Chinese in MK11, Chinese-descent in MK2021.
  • Although it's not had anything to do with ethnicity, rather nationality, Kano has been presented as English in MK95 and Legacy (contrary to common misconception, his performance in MK95 was Trevor Goddard performing with a Cockney English accent, not Australian) but then represented as Australian ever since in the games as a bizarre tribute to him.
  • Kung Lao has repeatedly been portrayed by Filipinos (2D games, MK Legacy and MK Conquest, all by different actors of Filipino descent), yet the character has always been Chinese as he is in MK11 and will be in MK2021.
  • Jade was played by an actress of far east Russian-Asian decent (very close to Mongolia) in Annihilation, whilst she's now of mixed race in MK11.
  • Rain has been white in the old games, white in Defenders of the Realm, black in Annihilation and Conquest, now of middle-eastern appearance in the latest games.
  • Reptile's lizard form has varied so much that he can't even be defined with a single appearance that would be definitive of what a Saurian from Zaterra looks like.
  • Sheeva has been portrayed with Indian ethnicity in Annihilation whilst she has a black face-model foundation in MK11.
  • Cyrax and Sektor's races were swapped between Defenders of the Realm where Cryax was white and Sektor was black, to Cyrax being black and Sektor being Asian in the games.
I'm sure there's more but these were the first off the top of my head, so it's not like Mortal Kombat has ever been a stranger to swapping nationalities and ethnicities since the very start of it ever expanding out into extended media productions in the 90s. As long as the performances are good then I really don't mind. Plus I'm always happy for more characters in the franchise to be of Asian descent (if it makes some logical sense) and gives it that more mysterious and ancient exotic influence, since the franchise has always channeled Asian mythology and classic kung fu movies since the very beginning, hell it's right there in the logo that adorns everything.
 
Last edited:
Pretty sure the guy directing this has directed nothing but Australian commercials in the past, lol. We’ll see how it goes, but my hopes aren’t very high.
 
After Wonder Woman 1984... nothing can be worse. Like seriously fuck the money for HBO Max i don't care but i want my 2,5h of life back.

The only thing Patty Jenkins should be writing from now on till the end of time is scenarios for condoms commercials. I lost more brain cells just by watching WW 1984 than from drinking alcohol in my entire life. Thou it sure looks like new MK movie gonna be also a turd.
 
Last edited:
Not one piece of marketing. Just a logo that my autistic nephew Franklin could have whipped up on his Chromebook.
NRS ain’t talking about it. Boon ain’t trolling about it. WB ain’t marketing it.
Producers and Writers aren’t saying shit, and ghosting everyone on social media.
I’d love to be proven wrong about how shit this movie is, but everyone involved has only been proving me right.
 
I mean MK11 wasn't as marketed as past titles, i feel. Like it kinda popped up with only four months until release. Maybe they're doing the same thing or being even more hush hush with the movie. So it just comes outta left field. This is me trying really hard to be positive tho lol. The director's credentials alone are such a major red flag
 
Still no teaser image, video or any visual. Just a release date and many many empty talks and leaks. The only good thing is Kabal's confirmation.
 
I'm very happy to see this thread being so active.
I only have one question to All of you...

Supposing that in mid April cinemas are going to be open to the public (with special seating measures etc..), how is it possible for this movie to make a profit?

It's given that its box office is taking a MAJOR hit, but is the limited ticket sales and the HBO earnings enough to give us a "successful" reboot and a possible sequel or are we doomed to never have an MK movie again due to the pandemic?

I'm really curious.

@Art Lean
 
Last edited:
I don't know how true it is, but according to the reddit page about the test screenings, they say Kitana's not even in the movie, only Mileena.
 
How does that even work? Stupid.

If this movie is a 6/10, I will be absolutely psyched
No idea, but Kitana brought literally nothing to Annihilation, in fact she may have even been a detriment to it, and Mileena's place in that film was just pointless.

Therefore I don't wish to be a Negative Nancy and I don't want to make any assumptions about anything. However I am truly grateful that we are getting a new MK movie 23 years after the last (the last film being so shit its infamy still exists to this day), especially after the development hell of the cancelled MK Devastation as well as MK Legacy Season 3: Generations X being shelved even though it was fully completed; so I want to remain optimistic after the Reddit test screening responses all seemed positive.

MK95 easily proved to us that Kitana can be introduced without Mileena necessarily needing to be at her side, so arguably couldn't the same be done with Mileena where we meet the monstrous sister first, then in (possibly, hopefully if it's any good) a sequel, the respectable sister second? They don't have to come as a package if the storyline is any good. You can easily introduce one without the other to keep the plot lean, and I'd like to say it doesn't matter which one is introduced first if the movie's enjoyable.

Will the movie be good? I don't know. Reddit responses were all very positive. How many of them are true; no idea. As a Mortal Kombat fan, I'd like that to be true and have something to look forward to after a really really rotten year that I'd love to erase from my life and just focus on a stupid movie about a violent video game I've loved since I was a child. I want to hold my arms in the air and yell "MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAT" as grungey teens rally to my call, but instead I'll be back to calculating social benefits next Monday whilst a huge chunk of real-world-shit pollutes my mind and emotional happiness whilst I do so. i want this film to be fun, to make me feel like a kid again, I want to support it and just have a ball of a time watching it.

To curse it with assumptions of how bad it will be takes away from one of the few things I'm currently looking forward to in the horrible state of affairs the planet Earth currently exists in. And yes I'm a movie pessimist, I expect most new films of a franchise I like to be garbage, but I just want this to be 'better than Annihilation' and then even then, I've watched Annihilation like 50 times and laughed my ass off with pizza and beer so often that really all I want is it to be entertaining. I'm not expecting 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' of inter-dimensional martial arts movies, yes I'd love it to be 'A Chinese Ghost Story' fused with 'Enter the Dragon', creating the perfect marriage of Shinto Hong Kong supernatural cinema with classic Kung Fu action film-making, but I don't expect it to be. However as long as it meets at least MK Conquest levels of entertainment, with apparently (from what I've heard) MK Legends: Scorpion's Revenge levels of gratuitous violence, I'm sure there's an MK production worth biting into another slice of mozzarella and pepperoni to whilst blasting Juke Joint Jezebel.

Are my standards low? Maybe, but I'd just like to smile watching this. And sadly I've not smiled in a while.
 
I don't care what anyone says the first MK movie was fucking horrible too. It was at least recognizable as MK and kinda funny but good god, CGI Reptile is just the worst. I think that movie gets a lot of credit for being semi watchable and way better than annihilation, but it still sucks.
Yeah, it's extremely overrated. It's certainly not the worst video game movie out there, it's actually one of the better ones, but that's not saying much.

The latest Tomb Raider film is probably one of the better video game movies I've seen; at least in recent memory.
 
D
Yeah, it's extremely overrated. It's certainly not the worst video game movie out there, it's actually one of the better ones, but that's not saying much.

The latest Tomb Raider film is probably one of the better video game movies I've seen; at least in recent memory.
The 48 metascore movie? One of the worst videogame movies I’ve seen. Particularly being a fan of the franchise. I respect your opinion, tho.
 
I don't care what anyone says the first MK movie was fucking horrible too. It was at least recognizable as MK and kinda funny but good god, CGI Reptile is just the worst. I think that movie gets a lot of credit for being semi watchable and way better than annihilation, but it still sucks.
Yeah it was terrible, but at least the movie seemed to be self aware enough to realize it was terrible. It's a very watchable bad movie. Like that Dune movie from 1984.
 
Lol that reboot Lara Croft is terrible in the games... the movie couldn’t be any good. The actress looked like a fan cosplaying
 
Russo closed his Twitter account cos the movie going to be dogshit and never wanna see the response by fans.