MORTAL KOMBAT 2 Star Lewis Tan Teases That the Sequel Will Be "Absolutely Insane"
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie as it turned out to be pretty disappointing. It started out great, but then it kind of fell apart from there. Regardless, it ended up being one of the most successful films from Warner Bros.' experiment of simultaneously releasing movies in theaters and on HBO Max.
Due to its success, the studio is developing a sequel, and Mortal Kombat 2 star Lewis Tan, who plays Cole Young in the film, says he’s been "training [his] ass off" for the new film. He also teased that the sequel is going to be “absolutely insane.” During an interview with CB, Tan was asked if Discovery taking over WB affected the sequel, and this is what he said:
"Well, it impacts a lot, but not really us in particular because New Line is the studio that is under the branch of Warner Bros. But they're very happy with the movie, and obviously, it performed really well. It's one of the most-viewed films of their Warner Bros. Slate, even though it came out at the worst time ever possible. But no, we're full steam ahead. And now, we have Ed Boon with us as well, so we got the stamp of approval from the legend himself. #2 is just going to be absolutely insane. Way bigger."
So, if you were a fan of the first Mortal Kombat movie, that comment is sure to get you pumped up! The sequel is being written by Jeremy Slater, who was the head writer on Marvel’s Moon Knight series and also worked on The Umbrella Academy series. There are no details on what the sequel will entail, but Slater shared his unique approach to the franchise saying:
"I feel like the gore in Mortal Kombat is awesome and it's part of what people come for, you always have to find that balance between fun gore and gross gore, right? Because there's times where you rip someone's heart off or the best kill in the first movie is Kung Lao's spinning hat just sort of slicing her in half and that's the perfect example of fun gore because it's disgusting, but everyone laughs at the same time, right? You want to make sure that everyone is sort of laughing at the sort of audacity of the gore and they're not sitting there sort of sickened by close ups of dripping entrails and visceral and things like that."
"There's a tongue in cheek aspect of Mortal Kombat in terms of the violence and in terms of the gore, there's a little bit of winking at the audience and saying like, 'Yeah, we know this is ridiculous, but it's really fun and we're all in on the joke together,'" Slater continued. "And when you find the right balance, I think that's where you get moments like that incredibly bloody first battle that opens the first movie with score with Hanzo sort of tearing through all the assassins or you get the hat gag or things like that. So we're looking at how do we emulate those gore moments from the first one that were really, really successful and got huge audience reactions and how do we give the audience even more this time around."
Did you like the first 2021 Mortal Kombat movie? Are you excited about the sequel?
