In just a couple of weeks, the Mortal Kombat reboot arrives in theaters and on HBO Max, and if it manages to live up to the steadily rising levels of hype, then we’re virtually guaranteed to have a franchise on our hands. After all, there’s no shortage of inspiration to draw from a video game series that dates back almost 30 years, and some of the key players in Warner Bros.’ upcoming actioner have already revealed why several fan favorite characters aren’t involved in the movie.
Hyping up an impending release is hardly a new phenomenon, but director Simon McQuoid promising the best hand-to-hand combat ever seen on film and producer Todd Garner setting it up as the most badass martial arts movie around creates a certain level of expectation for Mortal Kombat, something that the final product hopefully manages to live up to.
While sequels seem more than likely if the project can turn the online buzz and momentum into box office dollars and an uptick in HBO Max subscriber numbers, there’s always the possibility of spinoffs and prequels to further build out the mythology as well. In fact, in a new interview, Sub-Zero star Joe Taslim admitted that his ultimate goal is to headline a feature of his own, one that would show us his transformation into the undead Noob Saibot.
“My hope is, that I can give justice to Sub-Zero. And I hope people want to see his transformation to become Noob Saibot. I want people to go, ‘Oh, that’s why!’. Now I understand why he’s Noob Saibot, because I want to have this journey of him that people follow. And I want people, when they watch the movie, to think and say, ‘I want to see what happened. I want to see the prequel. I want to see what happened to Sub-Zero. I want to see when he got abducted by the Lin Kuei, I want to see his training in the Lin Kuei’. This is in the middle of the journey of Sub-Zero, with my expectation to the fans to give them motivation so they want to see more, like a sequel or prequel. So we can have a full journey of Sub-Zero. That’s probably the goal, that’s probably my wish.”
Having lent his fighting prowess to The Raid, Fast & Furious 6, Star Trek Beyond, The Night Comes for Us, Cinemax series Warrior and now Mortal Kombat, Taslim certainly has the credentials to take top billing in a Sub-Zero spinoff, and the fans could indeed be crying out to see it by the time the credits roll on the upcoming reboot.
