Mortal Kombat may not have been the biggest hit with critics or with audience; it grossed $42 million in the U.S. and another $41 million overseas during the spring of 2021. But apparently that total was good enough during the early days of releasing blockbusters during the pandemic — or perhaps the film’s performance on HBO Max, where it was released simultaneously while it was in theaters, was strong enough — to suggest there is an audience for a sequel.

In any event, there will be another Mortal Kombat movie, which I sincerely hope is titled Mortal 2ombat. This one will be written by Jeremy Slater, who’s fresh off creating and scripting Marvel’s Moon Knight series starring Oscar Isaac. Slater, who also created The Exorcist TV show and developed The Umbrella Academy TV series, confirmed the news on Twitter, writing that he’s “beyond excited to be joining the team” and that they’re “building something bigger and better and bloodier that’s going to blow people’s minds.”

The first film wasn’t lacking in the blood department to begin with; it was the first Mortal Kombat movie to earn an R rating. (The previous two live-action Mortal Kombats from the ’90s were both PG-13.) How bloody can this thing get before it tips over into NC-17 territory?

2021’s Mortal Kombat, directed by Simon McQuoid, retold the story of the Mortal Kombat tournament, and the eternal battle between Earth and invaders from the dimension known as Outworld, from the perspective of a new character named Cole Young (Lewis Tan). It left things on a cliffhanger, with Cole heading to Hollywood to recruit movie star Johnny Cage to fight in the next tournament. That at least gives the sequel a jumping-off point to work with. Hopefully they can work in some babalities in this one. Those are funny.

Every Video Game Movie Ever Made, Ranked From Worst to Best

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