An animated Mortal Kombat movie is in development

Hollywood continues to have a love hate relationship with video game adaptations. They love making them and audiences hate watching them. Much of this is because of the obvious narrative where games allow the player to be a part of the action, whereas in movies, it requires a passive audience and often fills in the gaps with narrative fluff and actions scenes that just don’t work the same.

Cinema can also be somewhat restricted with what it can pull off compared to the games, like with 1995’s Mortal Kombat, which took an ultra-violent game and mashed it into an almost kid friendly version that just came across cheesy.

However, that has not stopped fans from wanting a decent Mortal Kombat movie made and it looks like it may finally be happening. Only it’s not going to be the oft-rumoured live-action sequel, but rather this time an animated version. Perhaps realising that the world of Mortal Kombat cannot be realistically portrayed in live-action or that their animation studio actually makes better movies, Revenge of the Fans has revealed that WB Animation is now getting a shot at a Mortal Kombat movie. The article also states the voice cast will include Joel McHale and Jennifer Carpenter, though the parts they play have yet to be confirmed

This would not be the first time that Mortal Kombat has bene adapted into an animation. Back in 1996, there was a Defenders of the Realm TV series which feature Ron Perlman and Clancy Brown in the cast. That series though was again intended as more of a kids show so featured none of the gruesome violence that fans loved about the video games and was essentially a very watered down narrative as a result.

It’s been a long time coming for a new Mortal Kombat movie, but with the planned James Wan live-action movie likely not happening, it is perhaps best that it gets the animation treatment, which would probably allow them to realise the world and its characters the way it was supposed to be. Not to mention Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse proved that adults can be just as much a target fr animation as kids.

Last Updated: January 11, 2019