We are in a big era for Mortal Kombat, surprisingly enough. Not only has Warner Bros. just dropped a new teaser for Mortal Kombat II, the movie, but its sequel, Mortal Kombat III, has already been announced during New York Comic Con.
Back in August, we believed Mortal Kombat II would be out this month, October. But we now know it won’t actually reach cinemas until March 15th 2026.
So why? And what is it with this rapidly expanding Mortal Kombat cinematic empire? Director Simon McQuoid talked on the subject at NYCC.
He said the team has been “a victim of our own success.”
“We’ve created a massive summer blockbuster, so I think we should all be proud of the fact that Mortal Kombat II and the franchise itself is going to kick off next year,” said McQuoid, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter.
This must be referring to online hype following the release of Mortal Kombat II’s July teaser, and how popular the 2021 movie has proved to be on streaming services. It was only modestly successful in cinemas, having made $84 million at the box office.
“Film-making doesn’t get much bigger than this,” says Johnny Cage actor Karl Urban in the just-released behind-the-scenes teaser.
“This is the way Mortal Kombat is meant to be seen.”
We heard months ago that the film has actually been sitting, completed, for a while now. The presumption is that the shift to a May release date is to give Mortal Kombat II a better chance in cinemas, rather than to give McQuoid and co time for reshoots.
The film’s sequel was also confirmed at a NYCC panel, with Mortal Kombat II writer Jeremy Slater expected to return to write the sequel.
There’s no word on whether McQuoid will direct too, but the way he talks about the film coming next year suggests an unusual level of passion for the video game brand.
“We felt that we just scratched the surface. There is so much to Mortal Kombat, to the lore, so much to work with that I thought we could just expand everything onto an even greater scale,” says McQuoid of Mortal Kombat II.
The production budget for Mortal Kombat II has been estimated at $68 million, a chunk above the $55 million of the 2021 Mortal Kombat film. But still relatively low for a large-scale action film.
Mortal Kombat’s last game was 2023’s Mortal Kombat 1, so we could potentially see both Mortal Kombat II and III, the films, released before the next MK game.
We are also almost exactly a year away from the current release date of the movie of Mortal Kombat's old adversary, Street Fighter. It is due in cinemas on October 16th, 2026.
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