Pretty much any movie designed with the intention of launching a multi-film series is envisioned as the start of a trilogy, so it’s hardly shocking to discover that Mortal Kombat writer Greg Russo penned the opening chapter with another two stories in mind that he wanted to tell.
The video game adaptation barely told a complete story of its own, though, spending a great deal of time explaining the mythology and lore behind the titular tournament and delivering a series of training montages with that very goal in mind, only to end on the sequel-baiting tease that we’ll get to see it the next time around. While it makes the entire narrative up to that point largely superfluous in the long run, it at least looks as if Russo will get his wish to stick around the world of Mortal Kombat for a while longer.
The movie may have dropped 73% during its second weekend at the box office, but the $55 million budget has already been recouped and HBO Max viewership numbers remain strong, so it’s only a matter of time before a second installment receives the green light. In fact, in a recent interview, Russo admitted his trilogy plans and said that it’s in the hands of the fans to decide the fate of Mortal Kombat.
“I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful. Fingers crossed that we can do more of this. I certainly. When I wrote this, I’ll tell you, I wrote it as a trilogy. I didn’t write the trilogy, but I wrote it with a trilogy in mind. I always think as a writer, we need to make sure that we leave ourselves places to go, that we don’t paint ourselves into any corners.
There are places, there are worlds, there are characters and things that I would love to explore, but ultimately, that is up to the fans. It’s up to the viewers. If an audience comes out, if they go to the theater, if they watch the movie on HBO Max, it will send a message that Mortal Kombat is valuable, and hopefully more stories can be told. So I’ll leave that one up to the viewers.”
Joe Taslim has already started getting carried away by saying he wants to return as Noob Saibot as well as star in a Bi-Han prequel, while there’ve also been countless rumors making the rounds about what the next chapter of Mortal Kombat could entail. If nothing else, though, it’s looking very likely we’ll be getting the tournament film with the sequel, which means there’s plenty more fan service to come.
