This year’s live-action Mortal Kombat experience may be rife with pacing and story issues, but it seems as though no amount of negativity is going to stop Simon McQuoid’s debut feature-length film from dominating the cultural conversation.
It’s on premium streaming service HBO Max that the martial arts flick has probably found its largest audience, though, having smashed multiple records on the platform since release. Similar to Godzilla vs. Kong and a handful of other Warner Bros. projects scheduled to open in 2021, the adaptation of NetherRealm’s fighting game franchise has been made available digitally for a limited period in order to account for theater closures made necessary by COVID-19, in turn contributing to precedent-setting performances such as this.
Indeed, Mortal Kombat now stands above both Deadpool 2 and Logan as one of the most-watched R-rated movie trailers in recent years, and it’s also broken a few pandemic era box office and HBO Max records, as mentioned above, a result that star Lewis Tan is still having trouble believing.
Still in shock over all the streaming records we broke. MK fans are truly the best but if you haven’t seen it in @IMAX that is a different experience. Enjoy the film this weekend ! #MortalKombatMovie #MortalKombat @wbpictures pic.twitter.com/i20AD7LUXy
— Lewis Tan (@TheLewisTan) April 30, 2021
Naturally, this instant success has prompted fervent discussion among fans online regarding prospects of a sequel, to which various crew members have so far refrained from either confirming or denying. McQuoid has repeatedly stated that the existence of future installments would be dictated by how well the first one ended up performing, with the pic laying the foundations for a continuation should the best case scenario come to pass.
As for what a potential Mortal Kombat 2 could entail, it’s likely that the titular tournament proper would begin, with Tan and his newly-established band of warriors tasked with officially taking on Shang Tsung and the forces of Outworld. Joe Taslim, who plays Sub-Zero in the reboot, is contracted to appear in multiple entries, too, likely as the cryomancer’s alter ego, Noob Saibot, and you can see here for everything you need to know about the mysterious wraith and his origins.