Mortal Kombat 2 looks set to revert to the franchise's classic roots, but there are several reasons why including a normal fighting tournament in the sequel would be a mistake now. Following the significant streaming success of Mortal Kombat 2021 on HBO Max, Mortal Kombat 2 is officially happening at Warner Bros, as confirmed by Deadline. The Umbrella Academy's Jeremy Slater has also been brought in to pen the script, which will reportedly feature the Mortal Kombat tournament that was conspicuously absent from the first film.
Although referenced heavily throughout Mortal Kombat 2021 as the highest-stakes Kombat tournament of all time, the reboot instead opts to focus on Shang Tsung's (Chin Han) pre-tournament machinations. Due to the sorcerer's underhanded plans, the entirety of Mortal Kombat acts as a precursor to the 10th Mortal Kombat tournament, giving Cole Young (Lewis Tan) and other fledgling champions a chance to get to grips with their respective Arcanas. However, this approach disappointed some audiences, with the film's lack of officiated bouts that have become a mainstay of the franchise over the years quickly becoming a bone of contention with the fanbase.
Yet despite Mortal Kombat 2 seemingly being fixated on the official 10th Mortal Kombat, introducing this unedited tournament could prove a costly mistake for the franchise. Mortal Kombat 2021 was refreshing in all the right ways, putting a new spin on classic Kombat characters and scenes while packing a surprise factor that the original Mortal Kombat films desperately lacked. To go back to a tournament format now following Mortal Kombat 2021's explosive entrance would be a pedestrian move from the franchise and may harm its longevity the same way Mortal Kombat: Annihilation did in 1997.
While Mortal Kombat 2021 contained many classic Mortal Kombat characters and callbacks to the iconic video game series, what is most striking about Simon McQuoid's feature film is how cleanly it adds a fresh spin on many of these components. Tweaks to the lore surrounding Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) and Bi-Han/Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim) made for a compelling opening sequence that was arguably the best fight scene of the entire reboot. This new layer of lore and rivalry that extends into the afterlife also sets up a substantial payoff, with Scorpion's hellfire immolation of Sub-Zero an immensely satisfying climax to both characters' initial arcs.
As a result, to go back to a tired tournament format for Mortal Kombat 2 would feel tame in comparison and would certainly lack Mortal Kombat 2021's surprise factor. Although retroactively viewed as a beloved cult classic, the original Mortal Kombat film was a thoroughly predictable, paint-by-numbers affair upon its release in 1995, whose outcome felt like a foregone conclusion from the start. There remains a myriad of other narrative options for Mortal Kombat 2 to choose from, with many of the video games containing storylines that surprise and delight—with installments like Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance largely taking place outside of the usual tournament setting. Mortal Kombat 2 will likely feature the tournament its predecessor built up, but unless the sequel deviates from the standard Mortal Kombat format, it looks destined to go the way of the franchise's last ill-fated sequel.