It’s insane to think that we are approaching the 30th anniversary of the initial release of the video game, Mortal Kombat from Midway Games. The popularity of the game led to the 1995 feature film by the same name. Then a very forgettable sequel in 1997 titled, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Now over two decades years later, Mortal Kombat is getting a new life on the big screen. Well… in some places. In others, we’ll at least have the opportunity to watch it from home on HBO Max.

So a big question is why now in 2021 is it the right time to finally drop a re-imagination of the Mortal Kombat franchise as a feature film. LRM Online had the opportunity to be invited to a press event featuring producer Todd Garner and director Simon McQuoid. Also while not present, we got a few words from producer James Wan, who could not be there as he is busy with pre-production on Aquaman 2. But not wanting to leave us empty-handed, he did answer a few questions.

One of the questions, of course, was the one we asked above, why make Mortal Kombat now. To be fair, we did find out from Garner and McQuoid that they have been working on this for 7 years now. So why now? Why then? Why fight for this film at all? For Mortal Kombat fans that is an easy question to answer.

ALSO SEE: MORTAL KOMBAT TRAILER BRINGS THE GORE AND FATALITIES!

“It’s been over 25 years since the first feature film came out, and fans have been pretty vocal asking for another big-screen entry. As a fan myself of the games and movies, I, too, wanted to see another theatrical version of this and felt it was time again to revisit this IP that has been kept relevant in the game world but not as much in the feature world.” Said Wan

“From the get-go, Todd Garner, my Atomic Monster team and I were excited and gung-ho about creating a new, updated version with today’s filmmaking technology whilst being respectful to the fantasy tone, violent action, and gore of the game that fans have come to love and, at the same time, bring these vivid characters and stories back to the big screen in a modern, exciting way for a whole new generation who may not be as familiar with the films as we were growing up.” Continued Wan.

Anyone who would fight to make a film for that long has to be passionate about the project. These characters continue to fill our need for action, violence, and gore on our video game systems. It’s about time we get a chance to put the controller down and see what these characters can do on their own! In just about one month, we get to do just that!

Are you ready for Mortal Kombat? Let us know in the comments below!

Warner Bros. Pictures’ Mortal Kombat hits theaters and HBO Max on April 16th, 2021.