It’s been a while since we’ve had a big computer game movie adaptation, but the Mortal Kombat 2021 reboot will be throwing its hat in the ring to try to turn the tide on everything that has gone before it. With the exception of The Angry Birds Movie 2, which is an animated adaptation of the mobile game, the last effort was Assassin’s Creed in 2016 and with all the kindness in the world it was pretty dire, so can MK 2021 restore faith in the concept?
Details about the upcoming reboot release are still fairly thin on the ground in terms of the story angle it’s going to take and the cast members that will be taking on the huge characters from the game. However, it’s going to be interesting to see how it takes shape in the built-up to the release in 2021 as more details get confirmed and the visuals start to emerge for the production.
The biggest milestone will be the trailer, which will probably come out towards the end of next year if production goes ahead as scheduled. We should also get a dedicated website next year with an image gallery and cast details, so we’ll update the latest news section below as more details are confirmed or at least rumoured.
Mortal Kombat reboot release date UK, US and North America
The Mortal Kombat reboot release date is still a long way away, so it’s quite likely that the schedule will change between now and 2021. However, as things stand, the film is slated to come out in the UK, US and North America on Friday the 5th March 2021.
Atomic Monster is the company behind the project and it’s currently in pre-production, which is the main reason that we’ll be monitoring the release details in the run up to 2021 to see if the date changes. There’s a lot of things for Atomic Monster to do between now and then with all the special effects and fight stunts to pull together for the film, so there might be delays.
Mortal Kombat 2021 reboot cast announcements and latest news
Apart from the release date, there hasn’t really been much information on the film apart from rumours that it’s going to be as bloody as the games with fatalities a plenty. The only thing confirmed as of yet is that Indonesian martial artist and actor Joe Taslim has been cast as Sub Zero. His previous roles include his breakthrough performance in The Raid in 2011 and Jah in Fast & Furious 6.
The news was confirmed by Mortal Kombat game co-creator Ed Boon, who tweeted the latest with a link to movie videographer Grace Rudolph, who featured the update in her video discussing the prospect of the film.
Age rating
The Mortal Kombat 2021 age rating obviously hasn’t been certified as of yet in the UK by the British Board of Film Classification, but if the rumours of fatalities is true then hopefully it’ll get the 18 treatment that it deserves. However, we suspect that a wiser move is to dial things up to John Wick style levels of cinematic violence and punch in an age rating of 15, which would work well to give the release a wider potential audience size.
Other Mortal Kombat film releases
The Mortal Kombat 2021 reboot isn’t the first outing for the game series on the big screen and if anything the games have become increasingly cinematic ever since Mortal Kombat X blazed onto the scene. The first film had a release date of the 18th August 1995 with Christopher Lambert leading the cast as Raiden (or Rayden as it was bizarrely spelt in the film).
While it based the story fairly closely to the concept of the game and had some good martial arts scenes, it picked up mixed reviews, partially because it had an age rating of PG compared to the 18 of the game. Hopefully, the reboot learns a little from this and follows more of an intense fighting style with the kind of gore levels that we’re used to from the Mortal Kombat franchise.
The second release was Mortal Kombat Annihilation and it picked things up where the first film left off with a few cast changes thrown in for good measure. It got even worse reviews than the previous film in the series, so if anything there’s even more here for the reboot to avoid.
