New Mortal Kombat movie will actually feature a Mortal Kombat tournament this time

The pieces were all there for 2021’s Mortal Kombat movie: a fantastic and deep cast, produced during a new era of video game adaptations, with strong costuming and behind-the-scenes footage of some very kinetic fight choreography.

Instead, we got a pretty bland mess with limited fight sequences chopped up by the editing style. Most boldly (or troublingly, depending on your point-of-view), there was no Mortal Kombat tournament to speak of in the nearly two hours of Mortal Kombat.

But good news: A first look from EW at the sequel reveals the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2, due out this fall, will feature the titular fighting tournament after all.

That tournament is now officially here in the sequel, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. If Earthrealm loses its 10th consecutive tournament against Outworld, then Shao Kahn will invade Earth and take over.

“They keep score throughout the movie,” [Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed] Boon reveals of the tournament. “There’s a visual representation of who is winning…. It’s not just a tournament for the sake of a tournament. There are huge consequences, so you really are keeping score. And there are a lot of twists in it that keep you on your toes.”

EW also includes a first look at Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, as well as Adeline Rudolph (Netflix’s Resident Evil) as Kitana and massive bodybuilder Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn. Each of those three new characters will get “movie-accurate” skins in Mortal Kombat 1 later in 2025, EW reports.

Other new cast confirmed by EW include Tati Gabriele as Jade and Ana Thu Nguyen as Queen Sindel, and “other” characters intended to fulfill the team’s goal of increasing “the number of female characters.” Could that mean Sheeva making an appearance? We’ll have to wait and see.

The returning cast includes two Shōgun stars — Tadanobu Asano as Raiden and Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion — as well as Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, Mehcad Brooks as Jax Briggs, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, and Lewis Tan as Cole Young (an original character from the first movie). Josh Lawson and Max Huang are also expected to reprise their roles as Kano and Kung Lao, EW reports, although both died in the first movie.

This adaptation comes during not only a wave of video game adaptations, but specifically fighting game adaptations, as a new Street Fighter movie is on the way from Eric Andre Show and Bad Trip director Kitao Sakurai. Only time will tell if either will live up to the bonkers-fun original adaptations.

Mortal Kombat 2 is scheduled to be released in theaters Oct. 24.