Liu Kang Will Return as a Fire God in Mortal Kombat 3, Says Writer Jeremy Slater

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Mortal Kombat 2.

Mortal Kombat 2 screenwriter Jeremy Slater has revealed that Ludi Lin‘s Liu Kang will return in Mortal Kombat 3 as a Fire God. According to Slater, Liu Kang’s return was always part of the franchise’s long-term plan.

In a recent interview with Variety, Slater explained that the creative team intentionally changed Liu Kang’s death to make his fate more mysterious in Mortal Kombat 2. According to him, it is unclear whether Liu Kang truly died or ascended to another plane of existence.

In the final battle, Shao Kahn mortally wounds Liu Kang. Before disappearing, Liu Kang realizes that he was never truly the chosen one. Instead of dying normally, his body transforms into fire and vanishes as he declares that he will “rescue the fallen.”

Slater said, “So we always planned to kill him [Liu Kang] in this movie, but Ludi Lin is so goddamn good. We didn’t expect even casual audiences to fall in love with Liu Kang as much as they did. We always knew that we would bring Liu Kang back in some form in the third movie. But we did end up altering his death a little bit to make it more of a choice. So we’re not sure if he actually died or if he ascended to some other plane. What actually happened to him in that moment is absolutely a mystery that’s going to be explored in Mortal Kombat III.”

Jeremy Slater Reveals Plans for More Classic Game Characters in Future Sequels

Slater says he already knows which characters from the games will be introduced in the upcoming third film, but added that “it’s way too early to tell people at this point.”

“I have dozens of characters that I want to bring into live action. Some of them are on deck next, while others are being saved for a hypothetical Mortal Kombat 4, 5, or 6. If the franchise continues successfully, we’ll bring in as many classic characters as possible, but we also want to be careful not to overload the audience.”

Directed by Simon McQuoid from a screenplay by Jeremy Slater, Mortal Kombat 2 is based on the video game franchise created by John Tobias and Ed Boon. Serving as the sequel to 2021’s Mortal Kombat‘ the film is also the fourth installment in the Mortal Kombat film series.

The film stars Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Sophia Xu as young Kitana, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Mehcad Brooks as Jackson “Jax” Briggs, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Damon Herriman as Quan Chi, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han / Noob Saibot, Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion, Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn, Desmond Chiam as King Jerrod, Ana Thu Nguyen as Queen Sindel, Max Huang as Revenant Kung Lao, and CJ Bloomfield as Baraka.

Produced by James Wan, Michael Clear, Todd Garner, Simon McQuoid, and E. Bennett Walsh, Mortal Kombat 2 is a production of New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, and Broken Road Productions.

Mortal Kombat 2 is now playing in theaters.