Popverse's top stories

• Disney and Universal's new lawsuit against Midjourney is shockingly blunt, calling the genAI company a "bottomless pit of plagerism"
• MEMBERS ONLY: Popeye, Scooby Doo, and Speed Racer walked (and drove) so that How to Train Your Dragon could fly [For Your Consideration]
• The Rock's Black Adam action figure wasn't "ripped" enough for his tastes, so he had Todd McFarlane fix it before it was released

There are weirdly high expectations for Mortal Kombat 2, the forthcoming sequel to the 2021 reboot of the video game movie adaptation. The first film was middling at best, with a bland protagonist and a series of uninspired fights book-ended by two great fights at the start and end of the movie. However, the addition of Karl Urban as Johnny Cage has upped the stakes as the film’s writer says test screenings had fans in a state we haven’t seen since Avengers: Endgame delivered on ten years of Marvel magic.

Jeremy Slater recently explained how he stepped into the writer role on Mortal Kombat 2 with certain things in place. “We came in with certain guide posts that were already in place,” he said in an interview. “The previous movie promised there was a tournament coming and that Johnny Cage was going to be part of the story, somehow. Those were the two things we knew we had to work with and around.”

With that tournament happening in this movie and The Boys’ Karl Urban stepping behind the iconic shades of Johnny Cage, Slater got to work fleshing out the script. Deciding who fights who during the tournament and who comes out on top in the battle for Earth Realm. Slater says he is a fan of the Mortal Kombat games, saying “I pumped so many damn quarters into that machine,” but it was the recent test screenings for the film that have proven that his efforts were worth it.

“I have been to those test screenings, which are full of Mortal Kombat fans,” Slater says. “And watching them react to it the way I reacted to Avengers: Endgame. They were cheering and jumping out of their seats. Every joke is landing and they are loving it. It’s one of the greatest moments of my life. That’s why you get into this business.”

Is this just more marketing hype or is this the best Mortal Kombat movie since the original 1992 film? We have to wait until Mortal Kombat 2 comes out on October 24, 2025 to find out.

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:

• Upcoming movies
• Upcoming TV shows
• Upcoming comics
• Upcoming games
• Upcoming fiction books
• Upcoming comic conventions