Mortal Kombat movie to get rebooted with new R-rated version

The graphically violent and super popular fighting franchise Mortal Kombat will return to the big screens once again. This time around, it will get the R-rated treatment courtesy of Warner. Bros for a more mature, and most likely, more graphic, reboot.

In a new report via Hot New Hip Hop website, they’ve indicated that Greg Russo will be the writer behind the film and recently confirmed it will include “fatalities” on the movie screen. These were not a part of the previous films released years ago. Russo teased moviegoers and longtime MK fans in his tweet by saying that they’d have to wait to see which fatalities are shown on screen.

That includes quite a few options. A new Mortal Kombat 11 game arrived earlier this year and featured a plethora of new fatalities. It’s also unknown which characters from that game or previous editions will make it into the new film. So far, just one character has been reported.

The new Mortal Kombat is already in production in Australia, based on reports. They’ve also mentioned at least one star for the film, with Joe Taslim, an Indonesian actor and martial artist, taking on the role of Sub-Zero. Fans are already speculating that some of the other popular favorites such as Scorpion, Shao Tsung, and Raiden will appear as well.

The first attempt at a Mortal Kombat film arrived back in 1995 with a PG-13 version. Among its main stars were Christopher Lambert as Rayden and Bridgette Wilson as Sonya Blade. With a budget just over $18 million, it went on to make over $122 million. That prompted the release of a sequel in 1997 with Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. It took in over $51 million in revenue with a $30 million budget and the sequels stopped. The video games have remained popular and continued to arrive over the years for various platforms.

That has fans excited that they may get a more true-to-game look for the rebooted movie. The new Mortal Kombat R-rated film is slated for a March 5, 2021 release to theaters.