Jeremy Slater, the screenwriter of Mortal Kombat 2, has revealed that the test screenings felt like Avengers: Endgame, as audiences cheered and jumped out of their seats. “The fights, the fatalities, the surprises, the deaths… I think we nailed it,” says Slater.
According to our source’s report on the Mortal Kombat 2 test screening, there are a lot of deaths in the movie, and it’s primarily a Johnny/Kitana film, while other characters are sidelined. The fight sequences are great, with lots of gore. Karl Urban was okay as Johnny, though perhaps a little too old for the role, and Kitana was amazing.
Speaking to ComicBook.com, Slater said, “I’m so excited for people to see the movie. It’s been done for a while—we’ve been waiting for the right release date and the right window. I’ve been to those test screenings, which are full of Mortal Kombat fans, and watching them react to it the way I reacted to Avengers: Endgame—they were cheering and jumping out of their seats. Every joke is landing, and they are loving it. It’s one of the greatest moments of my life. That’s why you get into this business.”
The fight choreography was handled by fight coordinator Malay Kim (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Michael Lehr (The Continental: From the World of John Wick), Slater focused on “selling the emotional story and then sell the big beats” on the page.
Slater says Mortal Kombat 2 “had the best stunt team in the business.” He added, “The actors are phenomenal. It’s so much funnier and bigger than the first movie.”
Slater continued, “It’s a cast of 20 people. It’s very easy for these things to become three-to-four-hour, sprawling epics, so you always have to be judicious in cutting things down and focused on what’s the emotional story we are telling, and what is the story the audience cares about. Then making sure that when you get to those moments that matter — the fights, the fatalities, the surprises, the deaths — they land and are as satisfying as everyone wants them to be. I think we nailed it.”
Directed by Simon McQuoid from a screenplay by 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 will hit theaters and IMAX on October 24, 2025, by Warner Bros. Pictures.
