If the director, Simon McQuoid, of the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie is to be believed, we can expect it to not mess with the fundamentals that makes Mortal Kombat the phenomenon it is. One example of this is not trying to tone the violence down, but rather accept a higher rating. To make the story more understandable for newcomers, a new character played by Lewis Tan - called Cole Young - is being introduced and will make the tournament more understandable and explain the background.
More importantly, there will of course be plenty of familiar names like Reptile, Raiden, Scorpion and Sub-Zero in the movie. Simon McQuoid promises to Screenrant that he will not mess with the recipe:
"There's fundamentals that you cannot change. Because if you start changing those fundamentals, then you are messing with the recipe, and it won't taste like it should. Historically, there's examples where they've taken it and then changed too much. It's like, 'Do something new. Don't take that, and then change it. Why are you doing that?' We all never wanted to do that. That was why I talk about respecting the material, respecting the fan base, and also elevating what's there."
McQuoid says he is not looking to make his version of mortal Kombat, but rather interpret the original source material. Mortal Kombat premieres on April 16 on HBO Max, and hopefully it'll end up as something both new and old fans can appreciate.