Believe it or not, there was a time when Hollywood studios would simply post their trailers online and just walk away. For especially big trailers, you’d maybe get an announcement the day before that the trailer was coming so everyone (including journalists like us) knew when and where to tune in. Warner Bros. showed that those times have ended, however, when they didn’t just drop the trailer for Mortal Kombat 2 – they turned the whole process into a kind of fighting tournament played by YouTube commenters.

It started simply enough. A teaser July 16 gave us a look at Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage in action and the promise of a full trailer the next day at 12:00 pm EST / 9:00 am PST. Fans tuned in to see the live stream counting down for a full hour, but when the countdown reached zero, the trailer didn’t start. Instead, a tournament bracket popped up in its place.

The idea was simple; type 1 or 2 in the chat to choose between two mystery Earthrealm or Outworld fighters. The winner was revealed, showing one of the characters in Mortal Kombat II. Interspersed between rounds were some trivia about the movies and games and a repeat of the Uncaged Fury trailer from the day before. The loading screen promised to show the new trailer only when all of the characters were revealed... which took an additional hour of play time. You don't have to wait that long; we've got the trailer for you below:

Is this the fault of Marvel, which turned a simple casting announcement into a multi-hour stream? Maybe, but Warner Bros. has decided to lean into the gimmick and give us the first truly gamified trailer reveal for Mortal Kombat II.

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