With Karl Urban's Johnny Cage stepping into the spotlight as the franchise's new lead, excitement is high for Mortal Kombat II. The fact that a sequel is on the way came as a welcome surprise, especially as 2021's Mortal Kombat only grossed $84.4 million on a reported $55 million budget.
However, it's important to note that its chances of success were hampered by the pandemic and a day-and-date release on HBO Max that never allowed the video game adaptation to show what it could do in theaters. Still, at the time, it overperformed, meaning the movie was far from a financial "fatality".
After moving around the release calendar (original plans called for it to arrive last October), Mortal Kombat II just got an exciting update from AMC Theaters (via GameFragger.com). According to the American theater chain, the sequel has a runtime of 1 hour and 56 minutes.
This yet-to-be-confirmed 116-minute runtime makes it the longest Mortal Kombat movie to date, topping the previous record holder: its 2021 predecessor, which clocked in at 110 minutes.
"The nice thing about a franchise like Mortal Kombat is you go into the arcade, put in your quarter, you choose a different character each time, and you have a different adventure each time," screenwriter Jeremy Slater previously said of the shift away from the newly created Cole Young. "In a lot of ways, Mortal Kombat lends itself to having new protagonists and new stories, in a way other franchises don’t."
"It’s a cast of 20 people. It’s very easy for these things to become three-to-four-hour, sprawling epics, so you always have to be judicious in cutting things down and [focused on] what’s the emotional story we are telling, and what is the story the audience cares about," he added, addressing the challenge of balancing such a large cast.
"Then making sure when you get to those moments that matter — the fights, the fatalities, the surprises, the deaths — that they land and they are as satisfying as everyone wants them to be. I think we nailed it."
In Mortal Kombat II, Karl Urban stars as Johnny Cage, alongside Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, with Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han, and Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion.
Director Simon McQuoid returns to helm the follow-up to his explosive 2021 cinematic adventure, from a screenplay by Jeremy Slater, based on the video game created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. The film is produced by Todd Garner, James Wan, Toby Emmerich, E. Bennett Walsh and McQuoid, and executive produced by Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Slater, and Lawrence Kasanoff.
Joining McQuoid behind the camera are director of photography Stephen F. Windon, production designer Yohei Taneda, editor Stuart Levy and costume designer Cappi Ireland, with casting by Rich Delia and music by Benjamin Wallfisch.
Mortal Kombat II will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, and is only in theaters and IMAX on May 8, 2026.