Wonderful. Just what we needed: a message from Warner Bros. about how the *martial arts brawler’s sequel to the 2021 video game adaption* won’t be arriving next year. It is three years. Not thirty-six months, not two dozen, but three whole years which is from October 24 of *this* year to May 15, 2026. That is not a delay, that is undoing the fabric of time.
Want to enjoy some Mortal Kobat fatalities this October? Prepare to wait almost two years to witness your fantasies coming to life. Mortal Kombat games have been known for brutal fatalities, but the reason gamers have been waiting for the new instalment is that they are good. People on social media have a strange way of being considerate toward each other. The outrage is as if it is an MK commentator with a sore throat. People are mad that we are getting the party 600 days later.
The announcement wasn’t even made with some extra kick. Marvin Celestine, known on the internet as DanielRPK, did at least get some attention when he dropped the news in the middle of a video game tournament discussion. Predictably, the talk swiftly changed to everyone incoherently, but still collectively, shouting “why” like a Mortal Kombat announcer. Why delay a movie that seemed like it was ready to go? The trailer was well received, and even Karl Urban as Johnny Cage was praised for the casting, so none of it makes sense.
A couple of the concerned fans are focussing on the financing and the marketing. Surely the question motive is: Is there a benefit from waiting until late spring 2026 as opposed to the fall of 2025? If there is a benefit, I might have been cut off mid scholarship, because even if the logic sort of worked, no, going live alongside the new Star Wars, the first one since 2019, is a terrible idea. They haven’t released one for almost seven years, so I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not smart financially to go head to head with it.
Perhaps it is the special effects that remains unfinished. The first trailer did seem to have some CGI that seemed a bit… rough. It didn’t seem bad at all but it did seem like final quality either. Maybe they are indeed fixing those finishing moves and making it right that every blood splatter is a proper mess.
The workers in the film industry also tend to “chat” test screenings. I personally wonder if the movie was tested poorly. I have heard some information regarding the ending, one with the vague “leaked” info stating that the last “like” portion is “so bad the audience would’ve left the theatres in a bad,” so I guess some rewrites might be involved, which sucks because that does make the delay more reasonable. It is probably a lot more reasonable to fix it than to release a disappointing sequel.
And, of course, there’s the Johnny Cage situation. The players were so excited with the casting of Karl Urban to take on the role, but now they worry he won’t get the proper fireballs or special moves. The first movie was, surprisingly, faithful to the games, so the expectation is a lot to have Cage bring the Hollywood flair and the shadow kicks.
What’s stranger is how close we were to the initial date. Like, October is literally next month in terms of movie production. To move something like that is quite unusual. One comment on the thread even stated that the movie was “picture locked” with mostly finished visual effects, which makes the delay more confusing.
The delay means that the trailer gets us hyped and then requires that we somehow sustain it for 21 months. Twenty-one months is longer than it takes to carry a baby. Someone’s witty remark was that “hope you haven’t forgotten baby Yoda by then,” referencing that hype requires being sustained for a long time.
On a bit of good news, one person mentioned that the new date falls on their birthday, which I suppose counts for some good news.
As I mentioned before, I can tell that the community is in anticipation of this game and I rather absolutely sympathize with anyone who feels let down by the delay, but the community is remarkably split with some understanding the wait is for better quality, whereas others are just furious. The first movie took the spirit of the games and captured it way better than people expected; sure, it wasn’t perfect, but the cast was good, the fights were intense, and the sequel was set up perfectly with the Johnny Cage at the end.
Now, all that remains to do is to wait. And wait And, continually waiting. It does feel like an eternity to May 2026. I suppose with the release of Mortal Kombat 2, we will see the payoff of the extended fatality sequence we are enduring. Until then it seems that the only options are to continue playing the games and hone those kombos.
