The Gruesome First Trailer For ‘Mortal Kombat’ Is Here

subzero mortal kombat

Warner Bros.


The first trailer for Mortal Kombat — the latest Warner Bros. film to release directly on HBO Max — is here in all of its gruesome, blood-soaked, bone-breaking, “FINISH HIM!” glory.

Alright, I’m not going to lie to you: this looks pretty gnarly. Will a majority of the dialogue make you cringe? Most likely. Will you find yourself merely awaiting the action scenes? Most definitely. But will those action scenes absolutely SLAP when they do roll around? Absolutely. I dare you to watch Sub-Zero freezing spilt blood to turn it into a dagger mid-battle and tell me that’s not a slick action sequence. It’s difficult to come up with something unique in 2021, particularly in the action drama, but Mortal Kombat seems as though it might have some tricks up its sleeve.

The film marks the first in the Mortal Kombat franchise since 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Warner Bros. has been developing the film for over a decade ever since they acquired the rights to the franchise from Midway Games back in 2009. In 2015, Saw, Insidious, and Conjuring creator James Wan was brought on as producer, with Simon McQuoid signing on as director in what will be his directorial debut.

The original Mortal Kombat game first began development in 1991 and released just a year later in 1992, despite beginning its production with only four members on the team. In 1995, after releasing three games in the previous three years — Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Mortal Kombat 3 — the first film in the franchise was released. Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (Event Horizon, Alien vs. Predator), Mortal Kombat was generally well-received, as it spent three weeks as the number-one film at the United States box office and earned over $122 million worldwide.

Mortal Kombat — which stars Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada — hits HBO Max in the United States on Friday, April 16.

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