Mortal Kombat (2021 film)

James Wan (pictured in 2018) serves as producer for the reboot.

In 1997, Robin Shou's original Mortal Kombat contract was a three-picture deal,[12] and Threshold Entertainment's production on a second sequel was initially scheduled to commence shortly after the release of Annihilation, but it was shelved due to Annihilation's poor reception and disappointing box-office performance. Attempts to produce a third film since then have remained stuck in development hell with numerous script rewrites and storyline, cast, and crew changes. A November 2001 poll on the official Mortal Kombat website hosted by Threshold asked fans which characters they believed would die in the third movie.[13] The 2005 destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina greatly affected one of the film's planned shooting locations.[14] In June 2009, a bankruptcy court lawsuit saw Lawrence Kasanoff suing Midway Games while mentioning that a third film was in the works. Warner Bros. (which became the parent of New Line Cinema in 2008, after over a decade of both operating as separate divisions of Time Warner) ended up purchasing most of Midway's assets, including Mortal Kombat.[15]

In 2010, director Kevin Tancharoen released an eight-minute short film titled Mortal Kombat: Rebirth,[16] made as a pitch to Warner Bros. Pictures of a reboot of the Mortal Kombat film franchise.[17] In September 2011, New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. announced that Tancharoen was hired to direct a new feature-length film from a screenplay by Mortal Kombat: Rebirth writer Oren Uziel,[18] with the intention of aiming for an R rating.[19] Shooting was expected to begin in March 2012 with a budget projected at between $40–50 million[20] and a release date of 2013.[21][22] However, the project was ultimately delayed due to budget constraints, and Tancharoen began working on the second season of the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy until problems with the film had been sorted out, but he quit the film production in October 2013.[23]

James Wan signed on as the film's producer in August 2015.[24] Simon McQuoid was hired as director in November 2016, marking his feature directorial debut, with Greg Russo writing the script.[25][26] Russo tweeted in February 2019 that the film's script was complete.[26] In May 2019, it was announced that the film had entered pre-production and would be shot in South Australia,[27] with a release date of March 5, 2021.[28] Russo tweeted in July 2019 that the film would indeed have an R rating and that the games' Fatalities would "finally be on the big screen".[29]

Joe Taslim was the first actor cast for the production in July 2019, as Sub-Zero.[30][31] In August, Mehcad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Sisi Stringer, and Ludi Lin were cast in the roles of Jax, Raiden, Mileena, and Liu Kang respectively.[32] Later that month, Josh Lawson, Jessica McNamee, Chin Han and Hiroyuki Sanada were cast as Kano, Sonya Blade, Shang Tsung and Scorpion respectively, with Lewis Tan in the role of Cole Young, an original character created for the film.[33][34] On September 16, 2019, it was announced that Max Huang had been cast as Kung Lao.[6] Elissa Cadwell was announced as having been cast as Nitara on November 11, 2019.[10] Matilda Kimber was cast in on December 4, 2019.[35]

Production took place at Adelaide Studios and other locations in South Australia.[36] Shooting lasted from September 16, 2019 to December 13.[37] Todd Garner stated that "we have more days to shoot" in his statement regarding the film's release delay.[38]