Looking back on 2021’s Mortal Kombat, I’m still blown away by how much fun that movie turned out to be. I’m not the only fan who feels that way, especially as we reckon with how, if the 2025 fall movie schedule held fast, we would have seen Mortal Kombat II landing in theaters this month. The delay into next May does come with some advantages, which I further realized after attending the recent NYCC 2025 panel for the film, which showed off marvelous footage, and came with a surprise reveal from the sequel’s writer, Jeremy Slater.

Surprise, Mortal Kombat III Is Already Being Written

Slater was on stage at New York Comic Con 2025, along with director Simon McQuoid and a handful of stars, in a panel moderated by the video game’s co-creator Ed Boon. With the crowd fully warmed up through on-stage conversation and footage, Slater further stoked this sequel’s fires with this remark we here at That Hashtag Show were in the room to experience:

Warner Bros is so happy with this movie, they’re so excited, they’re so convinced that there is a giant fanbase waiting for it, that they’ve already hired me to start writing the next installment of Mortal Kombat. So when II comes out in theaters, make sure they know there is an audience for this movie, because we wanna keep making them for you guys.

Those remarks were a proper bookend to an earlier question asked of Mortal Kombat reboot helmer Simon McQuoid, which addressed the picture’s 11th hour shift from its October 24th 2025, to its current home on May 15, 2026. In answering why the debut of new kombatants like Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage, Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana, or Tati Gabrielle’s Jade had to be rescheduled, the Australian director confirmed my exact suspicions – while also making that release date push look respectively sensible. 

Mortal Kombat II’s Delay Is Actually A (Really) Good Thing

Normally, people would see this sort of rescheduling as a sign of waning confidence, and I remember reading some people alleging that very reason for the shake-up. However, Mortal Kombat II is now releasing in a prime May 2026 release date, and that’s not a date you give a project that you’re looking to bury. Sure enough, Simon McQuoid confirmed as much, as he laid out the reasons for pushing back the next installment in this next piece of panel wisdom: 

We’re actually a victim of our own success. So every time people have seen this movie, it just sort of gained momentum. And it’s just [that] we’ve created a massive summer blockbuster. … And so I think we should be sort of proud of the fact that Mortal Kombat II, as the movie and the franchise itself, is just gonna kick off summer next year. So yes, we have to wait, but it’s gonna feel massive when it comes out next year.

Frankly, I’m glad Mortal Kombat II was sent to next summer – despite having to now wait for my mind to be blown further away. You can thank The Running Man’s November 14th release date for that state of mind, as the Edgar Wright/Glen Powell action-comedy would have debuted super close to the original release slot. While action fans have a lot of room in their hearts for this sort of fighting prowess, it would have limited this video game flick’s success at the movies.

I have a feeling that Warner Bros. thinks this beauty’s got legs, and with the next action-adjacent film on the 2026 docket being July’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, there’s promise in that theory. Not to mention, as the film’s hype train is gathering steam with each screening, that calls for a proper blockbuster marketing campaign. That much is true after watching the footage shown in the panel, which we can quickly recap, seeing as it’s (sadly) not online yet. 

Johnny Cage Vs. Baraka Is Gonna Blow People’s Minds

The audience on hand for Mortal Kombat II’s panel got to see two very awesome and very early looks at what’s to come. Around the mid-way portion of the panel, we saw Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) trying to taunt Baraka (CJ Bloomfield) into a fight with Liu Kang (Ludi Lin). But, of course, the star of such films as Uncaged Fury becomes the actual target, thanks to his mouth getting him into trouble.

After putting up a game effort, Johnny loses his already shaky confidence and almost throws in the towel. Then Sonia Blade (Jessica McNamee) reminds her would-be Mortal Kombat II ally of one thing: he’s an actor, so he needs to act. Cue Mr. Hollywood pushing up his sunglasses, finding courage, and punching Baraka right in the family jewels. You see part of this fight in the Mortal Kombat II trailer currently on the market, and if Johnny Cage isn’t seen as a true blue hero after this scene, I’ll enter the ring myself!

To say that the crowd ate this up would be an understatement, and the further teasing of Karl Urban’s Mortal Kombat debut was as sweet as we’d anticipated from the moment he was cast. The hype that Simon McQuoid and Jeremy Slater are definitely there, at least that much is true if you go by the crowd’s reaction to a new trailer (featuring a cameo by Ed Boon himself) is any indication. Unfortunately, if the on-screen text saying “This Summer” is anything to go by, we probably won’t see this trailer until the beginning of next year.

So yeah, we’re going to have to wait until May 15, 2026, for kombat to kontinue – but I can totally see why that decision was made. Summers were made for big ticket, ass kicking spectacle, and Warner Bros looks to have just that on its hands. And if this optimism translates into a flawless victory at the box office, Mortal Kombat III may happen sooner rather than later. In the meantime, be sure to keep up with all of the happenings in our Mortal Kombat II archive,

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