GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Mortal Kombat Legends Writers Talk About How They Wanted Top Themselves For The Sequel

Mortal Kombat Legends team talked about raising the stakes--and violence--during their Comic-Con at home panel.

10 Comments

The sequel to Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of The Realms just debuted its first trailer last week and gave fans more blood and war than we've come to expect from its 30-year-old history.

With Battle of the Realm hitting home release August 31, cast members Joel McHale, Jordan Rodrigues, and Dave B. Mitchell join screenwriter Jeremy Adams, producer Rick Morales, and Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon talked on a Comic-Con at home panel about the upcoming release and the world's mythology at large.

Justin Gray, producer and famed host of Mortal Kombat tournaments for the past few years now, moderated the panel. He wanted to talk about the sequel and what the team felt like they had to do to elevate the story so it's not so repetitive this time around.

"Like everything, we go back to the source material," said Morales. "The Mortal Kombat games have been topping themselves for years now. So we just key into that and sort of go with it. The important thing though is unleashing the artists, you know? You lean into what they think is fun and grotesque."

When asked if he let the artists be unleashed this time around, Adams absolutely agreed. "I'm totally scared of every storyboard artist now," he joked. "When I saw the animatics and what they did and then thinking about what we could possibly do, it definitely sparked my imagination. Are we going to try and touch what Ed and his team does? We're trying to!"

He then added how even though he wrote the script, it was even too much for him at times. "You give [violent moments from the script] to these genius artists and something happens, and you're like, 'Oh that's just terrible! You shouldn't show that!'"

Mortal Kombat has faced a bit of a resurgence the past few years with now two animated movies, a relaunch of the franchise that hit theaters, and HBO Max this year, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, which brought in movie icons like Rambo and Terminator to the long-running franchise.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 10 comments about this story