‘Mortal Kombat III’ Greenlit as Director and Cast Talk Sequel Expectations and Delay at NYCC

Mortal Kombat II screenwriter Jeremy Slater revealed that New Line and Warner Bros. have already greenlit the next film at the end of the sequel’s Saturday New York Comic Con panel, telling the excited crowd to show up to theaters next summer and “make sure they know there’s an audience for this movie because we want to keep making them for you guys.”

Slater was on hand Saturday alongside director Simon McQuoid and sequel cast members Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Tati Gabrielle and Martyn Ford, where they talked sequel delays and what fans can expect out of the next chapter. McQuoid, who took the question about the movie’s release shift from October to May 16, 2026, said the sequel was delayed as a result of being “a victim of our own success.”

“Every time people have seen this movie, it’s gained momentum,” the director continued. “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. Yes, we have to wait, but it’s going to feel massive when it comes out.”

The panel kicked off with a BTS feature, featuring members of the cast teasing the “fatalities, the flawless victories,” and a massive scale before promising a “sequel that is bigger in every way possible,” before McQuoid began addressing the “blockbuster” sequel that Slater noted heavily centers Johnny Cage (Urban) and Kitana (Rudolph).

“The goal was, after the first one came out, really, to make Mortal Kombat II feel like a full-length feature version of the tone we created in the opening of Mortal Kombat I. 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,” he said. “It was about pushing the boundaries with everything. I wanted to have much more emotion with the characters, so there were much higher highs and lower lows. I wanted us to journey through all of the realms and different places, levels and environments you can go to in Mortal Kombat. I wanted us to spend more time in those places and to be able to use the treasure trove created over the years.”

In terms of how the film will balance its action, narrative and emotion, Slater noted that he relied on his inner fan as his North Star. “It’s a great problem to have when you have a movie with 20 main characters. There’s so much to choose from. It’s so daunting at the same time,” he said. “You can’t make a six-hour Mortal Kombat movie.”

More emotion doesn’t mean less action, though, with McQuoid noting that he tried to bring twice as many fights as the first film. “The tournament itself allowed us to create a structure that the storylines all went through. All of our characters, their journeys have to go through the tournament. We wanted to do that in a way that was visually massive, interesting, but has the variety that Mortal Kombat always has,” he said.

“A lot of traditional fighting tournament movies, there’s a fight and then you can go to the bathroom,” added Slater. “We didn’t want that structure. In between the tournament, the characters have their own missions and adventures they’re going on, so there’s no downtime.”

The film will also hit theaters in IMAX, with McQuoid noting that he wanted to do “a little bit more” with what IMAX already gives filmmakers. “I actually wanted to do something with that real estate that, if you consider yourself a fan of Mortal Kombat, you have to see it in IMAX. There are some little bits of joy in there. You won’t see it in regular screenings, and it affects the story a little bit.”

During the panel, the cast also teased their characters’ journeys and how they prepared themselves for the roles. For Cage, “When we first see him, he’s a very dispirited character. His career is completely in the tank. He’s not been keeping up with his training. The world has forgotten who Johnny Cage is,” Urban explained, noting he has very little of the brash cockiness fans know. “He’s just a broken man.”

Cage is then drafted to fight, and “through the course of the movie, you’re going to get to see him transform into a true champion of Earth Realm, a hero involuntarily launched into this insane action adventure.”

“The Johnny Cage of the game isn’t necessarily a character you can go on a journey with. He already has everything,” Slater explained. “It was fun to start him at a lower place and watch him become the Johnny Cage we know and love.”