Mortal Kombat 2021 director Simon McQuoid explains the rationale behind the movie's mostly classic character roster, as well as why new character Cole Young was added. The new movie adaptation of the classic video game series gets released on HBO Max on April 16, less than a month away now. The first Mortal Kombat trailer, which beat Logan and Deadpool 2 for views, revealed not only a bloody and violent approach to the action which lines up perfectly with the games, but also a mostly classic lineup of fighters.

With the likes of Jax, Sonya Blade, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, Kano, Raiden, Mileena, Kabal, Shang Tsung, Goro, and even Raiden seen in the footage, it's clear McQuoid and the rest of the creative team have drawn from the original well of characters for the movie. But despite this, fans were outraged that Mortal Kombat seems to follow a new character, Cole Young, and has left out one of the most popular original characters - Johnny Cage. There are multiple theories about who Cole Young really is, and how he could be connected to a classic character, though, and McQuoid hints at that in a new interview, while also explaining how the character rosters was decided on.

Related: Why Scorpion Appears To Cole Young In Mortal Kombat's Trailer

Speaking in a roundtable interview a month ahead of Mortal Kombat's release, McQuoid digs into the rationale behind the character roster. He says while they knew almost from the start that it needed to be the "classic set," singling out Max Huang's Kung Lao as an example, McQuoid also admits there needed to be some new characters. Teasing a hidden backstory, McQuoid says the filmmakers felt confident adding the likes of new character Cole Young as a new character, partly because the game series constantly adds new characters. He also explains that it was also needed to let new audiences in at the same time, revealing Young will be an audience surrogate into the Mortal Kombat universe. You can read his full comments below:

Well, we soon decided that it pretty much needed to be the classic set. Kung Lao needed his time; he needed to be brought into this, because we could sort of pull that off now. That hat... We had to get that hat right, and that took a lot of time. But I kind of liked the idea that Kung Lao would now have this presence within the film that would add a new element. And Max [Huang] is fantastic as him. It was the classic set, plus who else are we going to have? Then there's others in the film, and there's things I can't tell you that you'll find out. Each of these characters existed for various different reasons, beyond our main heroes. The new character Cole Young, we felt it was okay to bring a new character in, because Mortal Kombat bring in new characters all the time. When people were like, "Why are they bringing new characters?" I always thought, "Don't Mortal Kombat do that anyway?" I thought that precedent was there, and it also helps the functionality of the film. New audiences matter, as well, which is something we needed to consider. But also, we felt we could serve both. We didn't need to throw away the respect for the fans by doing that and doing those things. So, it just became that each character needed a reason to exist, and then once we worked that set out, then it sort of just seemed to flow from that point on.

Mortal Kombat Lewis Tan Cole Young

Including the classic roster of characters makes a lot of sense, and you can see the rationale behind using Cole Young as a type of audience surrogate to introduce this Mortal Kombat universe. It works for both new audiences, and serves to clarify just how the movie treats the Mortal Kombat tournament to long-time fans of the games. Whether that's enough to satisfy fans who made Johnny Cage trend online after his absence from the trailer remains to be seen.

One thing is for sure, though. With a line up of characters who have been part of the universe since the mid-1990s, there should be enough to keep even most die-hard fans happy. That is, of course, if Mortal Kombat 2021 is actually a good movie. There's a lot to live up to, and it seems as though McQuoid and the team are well aware of the legacy of the universe, but it's less clear whether they'll be able to meet the lofty expectations of the game's millions of fans.

Next: Every Fatality In The Mortal Kombat Trailer Explained

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