The backlash towards Warner Bros.’ decision to send their entire slate of 2021 movies to HBO Max on the same day they hit theaters is far from over, with Dune director Denis Villenueve a particularly vocal critic, but that hasn’t stopped the studio from firming up the release schedule for next year.
There are still several titles that don’t have official dates yet, but one of the projects pulled from cinemas indefinitely has now been locked in for April. The Mortal Kombat reboot was initially set for the end of next month, but the continued uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus pandemic saw it quietly removed from the calendar, with producer Todd Garner admitting as recently as November that he had no idea when the video game adaptation would arrive.
Fans might be disappointed that Mortal Kombat isn’t debuting in January as planned, but at least Warner Bros. have confirmed when they can see it. Simon McQuoid’s feature debut will land on the big screen and HBO Max on April 16th, and given the amount of projects delayed by anything up to a year, three months isn’t bad all things considered.
Now that we know when it’s arriving, the first trailer shouldn’t be too far away, either. Filming wrapped twelve months ago, so Mortal Kombat will be very close to being completed, if it isn’t already. The latest live-action spin on the source material could be one of the movies to benefit from the potentially game-changing business strategy, too, with the video game genre still far from a sure thing at the box office despite some recent signs of a renaissance being led by the critical and commercial success of Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog.
