NetherRealm Studios’ famed Mortal Kombat series may be known for its violent nature, but it’s certainly far from realistic.
Sure, modern technology certainly makes some of the franchise’s most recent installments look brutal beyond anything else you’ll find in the fighting game genre, but in a world populated by undead ninjas, otherwordly gods and four-armed aliens, realism certainly isn’t very high on the list of priorities. That being the case, it’s hardly surprising that the franchise’s current incumbent, Mortal Kombat 11, is almost comical in its absurdly over the top Fatalities, which, while present in next year’s film adaptation, will stick closer to portraying violence grounded in reality.
That’s according to actor Mehcad Brooks, at least, who, in a recent chat with podcaster Duncan Trussel, spoke about his role as Jax Briggs and how he approached the character.
When I approached Jax I was like okay, well, he’s an assassin, he’s a killer, and he kills monsters, so he has to be a monster. And I was stuck on this Ernest Hemingway quote, and I’m sure I’m gonna f**k it up, but it goes along the lines of ‘Once you’ve hunted and killed trained men long enough, you have very little taste for anything else in the world,’ and that’s who Jax is. That’s how I found this grounded realism in him. Who was he before he was hunting monsters?
With that said, however, Brooks reassures fans that all the series trademarks such as Fatalities and signature moves will be included, but they’ll be present alongside “a real story about real people that you can connect and identify with.”
Some fascinating insight into Mortal Kombat‘s theatrical reboot, then, and it’ll be interesting to see if filmmakers can find the perfect balance between fantasy and realism. At the very least, though, audiences can expect some solid set-piece fight scenes in the film, with the likes of Joe Taslim (The Raid) and Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai) sure to give it their all as Sub-Zero and Scorpion respectively.
Mortal Kombat is due for release in theaters sometime in 2021.
