Back in the 1990s, the original Mortal Kombat was meant to be a trilogy. The first was considered a success. The second however, was a blunder.
Because of the poor box office performance of the sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the development team shelved the third project, which should have been in schedule shortly after the sequel's release.
Since then, there were numerous attempts to bring back the media franchise that is centered on a series of video games. But many either failed or canceled due to numerous script rewrites and storyline, cast, and crew changes.
But then it was in 2009, that a bankruptcy court lawsuit saw Lawrence Kasanoff suing Midway Games while mentioning that a third film was in the works. Warner Bros. Pictures that became the parent company for New Line Cinema in 2008, acquired most of Midway's assets.
All of which, includes Mortal Kombat.
This led to the an eight-minute short fan film by director Kevin Tancharoen in 2010. The name is Mortal Kombat: Rebirth.
Tancharoen meant to film to be the ultimate pitch to Warner Bros. in order to reboot the Mortal Kombat films.
It tells the story of Mortal Kombat, but in an alternate version universe that is based on realism, opposed to the many-realms setup the original Mortal Kombat is known for. The characters of the game also follows this setup, as they are portrayed to be very different from their counterparts in the game, and have no supernatural powers.
The 8-minute film was meant to be only on YouTube.
But since the film came out all of a sudden, many were confused by it.
Websites like IGN, 1UP and others in the gaming industry, thought that the video was meant to be a viral marketing campaign to promote an upcoming Mortal Kombat video game. Even Michael Jai White's representatives believed that Mortal Kombat: Rebirth was an advertisement for an upcoming Mortal Kombat game.
In the film, White portrayed Jackson Briggs, a captain in the Deacon City Police Department.
It was Jeri Ryan, who played Sonya Blade, Jackson Briggs's partner, that admitted that her appearance was only a favor to a friend, and described the video as a pitch for a film.
Even Mortal Kombat series' co-creator Ed Boon himself was caught off guard, and said that he had "no idea it was being made".
Regardless, Boon said that the film was "awesome" and that it "probably crosses the line" as far as "re-imagining" goes. Boon later added that the short film was "incredibly well done," and that it was "a legitimate alternate universe Mortal Kombat".
A million people asked me what I thought of the MK Rebirth video. Personally I thought it was awesome. Super high production quality!
— Ed Boon (@noobde) June 10, 2010
But I was just as surprised to see it as everyone else. I had no idea it was being made until it showed up on the internets. All 3 internets
— Ed Boon (@noobde) June 10, 2010
Its TOTALLY different & probably crosses the line. But as a "re-imagining" and as a film piece on its own, u can't deny its well put 2gether
— Ed Boon (@noobde) June 10, 2010
Tancharoen hoped that the project can bring back the film franchise that was a decade dormant.
At first, he succeeded.
It was in September 2011, that both New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. said that Tancharoen was hired to direct a future Mortal Kombat film of the same name, with Oren Uziel as its writer.
This time, Tancharoen took a rather different approach than the first two Mortal Kombat films, in which he wanted his Mortal Kombat to have an R-rating. Shooting began in 2012.
But again, the film didn't hit the big screen due to budget constraints.
Disappointed, Tancharoen began working on the second season of the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, with hopes that the tables will turn.
But again, that didn't happen. In 2013, Tancharoen quit.
Tancharoen has even removed the original video from Youtube.
But soon, production restarted. James Wan was announced as a producer in August 2015, and McQuoid was hired as director in November 2016. Uziel remained as its screenwriter.
Production took place at Adelaide Studios in Adelaide, with other locations located in South Australia.
Then on April 8, 2021, Mortal Kombat was released by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema internationally, and was released in the U.S. on April 23, simultaneously in theaters in 3D and on the HBO Max streaming service.
While the film received mixed reviews from most critics, mostly because of its story that is unrelated to the original storyline.
However, many fans praised the film's actions, as well as the film's ability to return some of their favorite characters back to life on screen, like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Jax, Kano, Kabal, Shang Tsung, Mileena, Lord Raiden and more.
