It looks like the third Mortal Kombat movie might not happen anymore, as director Simon McQuoid confirms the project is still in limbo.
When asked for an update, McQuoid told The Wrap, “I think it’s still going through its life cycle. So I don’t know yet. I’m not sure.”
News of the threquel arrived at New York Comic Con 2025, when screenwriter Jeremy Slater revealed he had started writing the third movie. There has been little update since then. However, that was before Mortal Kombat 2 hit screens. Starring Karl Urban, the sequel follows Johnny Cage as he joins other fighters in the ultimate battle against Shao Kahn.
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The sequel premiered early this year to mixed reviews and a 64% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In our Mortal Kombat 2 review, we called the video game adaptation “a step up from 2021’s bizarrely tournament-less Mortal Kombat that lands some killer blows, but it’s far from a flawless victory.”
Although the second movie was a vast improvement on the first film, which stands at 55% on RT, the sequel earned $129 million globally against a predicted $80 million budget. When taking marketing and other costs into consideration, Mortal Kombat 2 cannot be called a box office success.
That’s not to say Mortal Kombat 3 won’t happen at all. Mortal Kombat 2’s ending leaves room for more future fights. Not long after release, Slater confirmed that Ludi Lin’s Liu Kang would return in the threequel. Despite the character seemingly dying, Slater said Kang’s mysterious revival would be addressed in Mortal Kombat 3. However, it sounds as though McQuiod has other projects in line first.
The director added, “I feel like there are other stories that I want to tell that aren’t necessarily in Mortal Kombat and I have multiple things in development, one of which we’re just casting now and that’s not Mortal Kombat at all, something that is in the real world and very much a deep dive into a singular character and character study.”
For more, check out our guide to upcoming video game movies, and keep up with upcoming video game movies on the way.