Mortal Kombat II (Karl Urban is Johnny Cage)

EXCLUSIVE: New Line is getting back into a fighting stance on a sequel to Mortal Kombat, the action-adventure film based on the blockbuster video game franchise. The studio has hired Jeremy Slater to write Mortal Kombat 2.

Slater was head writer on the Marvel/Disney+ series Moon Knight, which stars Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke and Gaspard Ulliel, the French actor who died last week in a skiing accident after the series’ first season had been completed. Slater also is writing to direct Thread for Screen Gems, with James Wan and Atomic Monster producing. His recent scripting credits include the Netflix/21 Laps film Uprising with Travis Knight directing and adapting Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers for Universal and James Wan. He also developed The Umbrella Academy for Netflix/UCP/Dark Horse and was creator and co-showrunner of The Exorcist on Fox.

Based on the video game phenomenon created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, Mortal Kombat was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in April 2021 during the pandemic, opening at No. 1 at the box office and ranking among the top feature titles on HBO Max since the platform launched. The film was directed by Simon McQuoid, who produced with Todd Garner, E. Bennett Walsh and Wan. In last year’s action-fest, an MMA fighter sought out Earth’s greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies of Outworld. It was a battle for the universe.

Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Tadanobu Asano and Chin Han headed the cast. No other deals for the sequel are locked at this point.

Tyger wrote:The first was so disappointing though