Confirmed: 1 character will NOT be revived for Mortal Kombat III
12 May 2026
With Mortal Kombat, studio Midway Games in 1992 launched what would grow into one of the biggest fight games of all times, and a very popular name in the world of international esports. A total of twelve main series titles plus countless additional and bonus instalments turned the franchise into the best-selling fighting game franchise worldwide with over 100 million copies and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
Amongst many other spin-offs, the Mortal Kombat franchise was turned into a live action movie series. On May 8th, 2026, Mortal Kombat II was released and despite a somewhat disappointing opening weekend, there seem to be plans for Mortal Kombat III already. We know that, because Mortal Kombat II screenwriter Jeremy Slater has confirmed that one popular character will most likely not be brought back from the dead for the next movie.
(Warning: potential Mortal Kombat II spoilers ahead!)
Life and death in Mortal Kombat II
As one might expect from a series like Mortal Kombat, death is always around the corner. The movies do more than justice to this lethal reality, with no less than nine characters finding their demise in Mortal Kombat II alone. Or eight, if you are sticky about the fact that Bi-Han is technically killed twice: once as Sub-Zero by Scorpion and once as the resurrected Revenant Noob Saibot (by Johnny Cage).
That is not all though, because Slater also decided to bring four characters back from the death for Mortal Kombat II. The popular Kano and Kung Lao were revived, the former by the necromancer Quan Chi, the latter as a bitter Revenant. Besides that, Sub-Zero/Noob Saibot is resurrected from the dead as a ghastly wraith, while Sindel was resurrected to act as a ruler alongside Shao Kahn.
Who is not returning?
The revivals and resurrections in Mortal Kombat II were made possible by Slater introducing the previously mentioned necromancer Quan Chi and the Revenants. This means that, in theory, Mortal Kombat can now be brought back to life (or something similar to it). However, there is one character we will not be seeing back in Mortal Kombat III, which could be set for release in 2028. That has less to do with the characters and the possibility to revive them, and more with the fact that Slater prefers less CGI in his fight scenes.
“Goro is a good example [of a character he is not thinking about bringing back], just because I think one of the things we have sort of discovered along the way is that watching two human martial artists fight is a lot of fun, and watching people shadowbox CGI monsters is not as fun”, explains Slater, “We’ve really sort of learned that you can make the fights a lot more visceral and a lot more satisfying when it’s human versus human. So I think Goro is a tough one because he’s very hard to do without incorporating a lot of CGI.”