As far as action goes, summer 2026 kicked off with Mortal Kombat II, a much-hyped follow-up to the fairly well-received 2021 film that turned out to be the most popular streaming release during WB’s year-long simultaneous roll-outs in theaters and on HBO Max. While that film reacquainted fans and audiences with a new cinematic universe based on the popular fighting game series, director Simon McQuoid allowed this sequel to focus on the actual tournament. This would bring together many characters, including many from the previous film, as well as several new, fan-favorite characters from the games, such as Johnny Cage (Karl Urban), Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), Jade (Tati Gabrielle), and the mighty Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford). The film was met with mostly positive reviews, including my own, a rarity when it comes to over-the-top action extravaganzas. It’s now available to watch on digital, with a physical release arriving July 28, 2026.
With that in mind, I was pleased to speak with McQuoid about his appreciation of the video game franchise and how his understanding of the lore allowed he and writer Jeremy Slater to dive into this sequel with their own take on how to best deliver something satisfying for the fans while also entertaining for general audiences alike. There’s also discussion of the work to recreate some of the iconic environments from the games and how they reflect on the characters. Finally, McQuoid also addresses the legendary rivalry between Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada) and Bi-Han (Joe Taslim), emphasizing its potential to evolve beyond repetitive combat into a deeply layered cinematic relationship.
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[The following has been truncated and edited for clarity.]
Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment (WLE): Hi, Simon.
Director Simon McQuoid: Hi, Aaron. How are you doing?
WLE: Doing quite well. For the last film, I interviewed one of the stunt choreographers, so I’m excited to talk to you about the sequel here. I’d have to assume by this point you’re very invested in the lore of Mortal Kombat.
Simon McQuoid: Well, I, I try [laughs]. I try. Uh, and there’s a lot of detail there, and I relied heavily on Ed Boon [the series’ creator] on the second film. So, it was very nice that Ed was only a phone call or an email away. So, I guess I soaked up some of it, but yes, I tried.
WLE: So, I have like one nerdy question, then I’ll get into other stuff, but I wonder: Earthrealm – the logic of this film is that Earthrealm has lost 9 out of 10 tournaments, and it’s this last one that we need to win so it doesn’t get conquered. I just wonder, should Raiden be picking better people at this point, right? Like, if you lose three tournaments, you feel like maybe Raiden’s not the one who should be choosing for us. Maybe we— [laughs] maybe, maybe somebody else should be picking the people here.
Simon McQuoid: Yeah, I mean we, [laughs] we certainly had lots and lots of discussions in the first and second film about, about what that sort of particular piece of information that comes from the MK lore about how we’ve lost nine and if we lose this one, it’s all over. Yeah, it’s very easy; the moment you start picking at that, it unravels really quickly. So, we were trying to make this work, and there was an inordinate amount of conversations about, okay, you know, what, what do we do about this? Why is he choosing these particular people? I felt like there was that scene with Johnny and Raiden, as they look out over the balcony in the desert. I think Jeremy did a really good job of layering in an element of that; it isn’t always the obvious thing that Raiden does. Raiden is sort of a few steps ahead. And, as it turns out, he was right. So maybe you could argue, actually, he was the perfect guy for it. He saw something in Johnny, and that was, you know, just a matter of making sure that was how to get Johnny to go from rock bottom to the best version of himself again was Raiden’s goal, which happened to involve betting Earth’s future [laughs].
WLE: Right. I hear you, and it’s like the game itself as well, right? The whole tournament, tournament. So, it’s a little about me having a little bit of fun with it, but at the same time, what I like about both of these movies is that they have these specific character arcs that you can travel on, so it’s not just a series of putting people together to fight, but there’s a throughline that you can follow that’s welcome for something like this.
Simon McQuoid: Yeah, there was a lot of time and effort and conversation about making sure that every character got, um, it, it was, it’s very tricky. There are a lot of characters, and, you know, in the second film there’s more. So, it was making sure that everyone got their moment. Some get more moments than others, and that’s just the nature of it. But, yeah, we spent a lot of time talking about that and making sure, because I always felt like, well, people are coming to the, to see this movie because Sonya’s their favorite, or they’re coming because Kitana’s their favorite, or Johnny is. So, you’ve got to be respectful to every character and always, yeah, good or bad, respect them. You need to believe in their motivations and be open to that. And I think that was what we were trying to do the whole time.
WLE: But with the nature of Mortal Kombat, you can obviously bring characters back to life, and so I wonder, in the first film, Josh Lawson’s obviously so much fun as Kano. Was it always the plan to keep having him around, or was it born out of the fact that he just worked so well in the first movie?
Simon McQuoid: Well, Josh was phenomenal— in both films. I mean, he is quite something. He’s an incredible improvisor, has a lot of the lines he just riffs on the spot. I mean, you know, it’s a credit to Josh at how effortless he makes it look. I know he does a lot of work on it. He’s gifted. He really is. He’s just got that brain, but he also works really hard at it. And making something look so effortless takes a lot of work. So, having Josh as Kano was a massive strength of the first film, and we just knew we had to keep that key ingredient in the story. And it’s super fun. He brings a great, wonderful layer of sort of mongrel humor to things, which is very important to the whole DNA of it.
WLE: I love seeing all the different fight locations in this film. Like, obviously, the first film has its share of, you know, places to go. This one, you feel like it’s a lot more expansive, as far as the different places there’s combat, but also how representative they are of the game. Do you have a favorite one of those locations?
Simon McQuoid: Well, after the first film, I was like, okay, we can actually go to more different places. I wanted to, like, dig into the different realms that Ed and the team have created over the years. And so, there’s a lot, a lot to work with. And really, it was like, okay, what don’t we, where don’t we go? I had this sort of half-thought about Chaosrealm and Orderrealm and all these sorts of things, which are lesser known. Still, I was excited by the variety we could bring, the visual variety, and the tonal variety that could be right for Mortal Kombat. Still, I was also unique in that. And I was looking for things that made us feel different from many films out there. Mortal Kombat and what Ed’s done over the years have created that.
So it was always about keeping things surprising. Every time we went to a place, we wanted freshness, but it was also about what was right for the characters at this point in their arcs. An obvious example is Liu Kang and Kung Lao at the blue portal. That, that is the midpoint of the film, and it’s symmetrical for a reason. It’s very much like the two most connected characters are now on opposite sides of their relationship. And you know, what Liu Kang has to do through that fight, and he starts that fight where he’s like, “Okay, I’m going to have to… how do I do this without harming or killing Kung Lao?” And then he realizes that’s not going to happen. So, it’s really nice to sort of see that progression, and then the music matches that as sort of like, “Don’t make me do this,” and the camera pushes in, and then you hear the Mortal Kombat theme. So, to sort of layer in all that stuff, I wanted to mainline into the audience layers of the things that matter. So, it was always this constant thought of Is this realm right for this character?
I love the Tarkatan village. I’m really happy with how that turned out. I love how real it is; I love how dusty, dirty, and mongrel it is. But most importantly, I love how a relationship was built based on conflict with Baraka and Johnny. And then Johnny was pushed by Baraka, and Baraka was handled in a way that made him the king of that village and introduced him. I love the process of making sure we weren’t doing something for just “Oh, this would be cool.” It’s like, okay, but why are we doing it? And why is that right for the character, their journey, and the relationship? This is always the first thing to consider.
I love the Sonya-Sindel fight. I love the opening fight, but that’s because I think that fight gets better because of the performance that young Sophia did with young Kitana. So, you know, there are lots of different reasons why things work. Some things I could have done better, and I feel like I look at the film and I always see the things I could have done better, but Sophia in that opening was phenomenal. And she needed to load the emotional catapult for the film, for Kitana’s revenge story, so she was critical to the success of Kitana’s story.
WLE: Okay, so I only have time for just this last question, but Scorpion and Bi-Han at this point seem like they’re just locked in this eternal fight in NetherRealm, even though Scorpion’s trying to find peace, I guess. Do you, do you have thoughts on this? Are they in this kind of eternal struggle to always be fighting each other? Is that a way of looking at it?
Simon McQuoid: I mean, again, it’s a relationship, so they matter. I’d love to see that relationship evolve beyond just, like, “Oh, you again.” Scorpion always prevails, but, you know, Scorpion is a layered, complex character as well and isn’t, sort of, simplistically a good guy. I also love Bi-Han’s evolution and how he keeps evolving. So, I feel like there’s a lot of really interesting, fertile ground there for those characters to continue their journey together, and that doesn’t always mean they’ll be battling each other in the same way. I think there’s a lot to that relationship. You can thank Ed and the guys over the years for creating that. So, I feel very lucky that Ed’s done so much of the work to sort of get it to that point, and I was trying to bring it to a cinematic scale, really.
WLE: I hear you. I appreciate your time. I’m very much looking forward to a third one as well. I want to see where this all goes. Thank you.
Simon McQuoid: Thanks, Aaron!
Mortal Kombat II is now on digital and will be available to own on 4K UHD and Blu-ray starting July 28, 2026.
