When promoting Mortal Kombat 1 (also known as Mortal Kombat 12) at Gamescom, NetherRealm's Ed Boon was unable to avoid questions regarding the progress of Injustice 3.
Injustice: Gods Among Us, the franchise's debut game, enjoyed both critical and commercial success, selling more than 4 million copies globally. Likewise, Injustice 2 sold more than 2.3 million copies globally as both games garnered praise for their story, graphics, and fighting mechanics.
Since the video game's release, the Injustice universe (whose events take place on Earth-49) has firmly cemented itself in DC Comics canon with the video game series also serving as the inspiration for a 2021 direct-to-video animated feature film from WB Animation.
"The way it works with me at least, I can't speak about everybody else, is I always have a notepad file on my computer with ideas of like, 'Oh, we could do this, we could do that.' And I started an Injustice 3 one when we were on Injustice 2," Boon told ComicBook. "There's always a hit list of ideas and concepts and look into this, look into that. So there's absolutely a file that exists."
Boon was also asked about the chances of NetherRealm making a Marvel Comics vs DC game and the video game legend stated that he'd love to take the challenge on but there are obviously a lot of challenges to overcome to get the rival comic publishers to collaborate.
"I mean, we did a number of games with DC characters. When you're kids and you're like, 'Who would win in a fight, Mighty Mouse or Superman?' Just these dumb different universe things. There's part of us that still [has those] immature conversations. To me, Spider-Man and Batman would be the coolest thing in the world. So of course we'd love to do that. But it's probably very difficult to jump that hurdle."
Marvel and DC haven't collaborated since 2003's JLA/Avengers crossover event and since then, the two companies have become rivals in not just comics but also film and television.
With every media company anxious to increase the value of its brand these days, the chances of a Marvel vs DC Comics game are probably slim to none.
Mortal Kombat 1 is set to hit the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC next month on September 19, 2023.