Now that head writer Jeremy Slater has finished work on Moon Knight, he’s already hard at work on his next major project. In an interview with The Direct, he offered a small update on the sequel of 2021’s Mortal Kombat film. While it wasn’t received warmly going by its Rotten Tomatoes rating but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming HBO Max’s most-watched film to date. In the interview, he reveals that they’re already “halfway through the script.”
It’s really fun so far. We’re about halfway through the script. I’m working really closely with the director and the studios, and the game guys, and I think—I can’t say anything about the actual story, but I think they definitely learned some lessons the last time around in terms of, ‘Here’s the stuff fans responded to, and here’s what people liked out of the movie, and here’s the stuff that didn’t work out as well as we hoped.’ So we’re really looking at this as a chance to take everything that worked in the first one and do it even better and give the audience even more, and make something that is just incredibly satisfying, and really exciting, and unpredictable.
Jeremy Slater
When asked how it might compare to his work on Moon Knight, he does highlight that it’ll keep his “sensibilities” but it definitely will continue what makes Mortal Kombat such an iconic series, its showcase of brutal takedowns of its heroes and villains.
I don’t think it’s necessarily going to have the same tone as the MCU, but it’s definitely going to have some of my sensibilities. That was part of my pitch to them. This is Mortal Kombat. We have guys who are ripping off their faces and breathing fire—it’s a weird universe, let’s embrace some of that weirdness, and let’s make a Mortal Kombat sequel that no one is expecting and that can kind of sneak in and blow everyone away. We’re still really early in that process, but I’m having a blast with this script
Jeremy Slater
The first film ended with a massive teaser of Johnny Cage finding his way into the film. It also only set up the actual Mortal Kombat tournament, as it was mostly a very Hollywood-esque prequel series leading into the main conflict from the games. Luckily, they are now unshackled and can potentially jump into it in the next film if that is the plan, as they could also be building up towards it by the end of a trilogy.
Source: The Direct
