Mortal Kombat and DC fans have for years hoped for a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe crossover movie or show, but it seems unlikely after Warner Bros. reportedly rejected a pitch.
Jeremy Adams, who wrote Mortal Kombat animated projects Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, and Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, said rights holder Warner Bros. rejected a pitch for a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe crossover.
“I would lower your expectations,” Adams replied when asked about the possibility by ComicBook.com. “I don’t know if they have any plans to do more. I do know that we pitched that a while ago, but it was kind of rebuffed.”
But why? Adams sounded nonplussed when asked: “Well, I think at the end of the day, I don’t know if they’re ever going to do any more. I hope they do, and I hope they call me to be involved. That would be great because I really love it. But I don’t know. I don’t know. I think it would be really cool though. Trust me, I would love to see a DC Mortal Kombat. That would be super, super cool.”
Midway Games’ Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe launched in 2008 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and saw the likes of Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Liu Kang go up against superheroes Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, albeit with the traditional Mortal Kombat gore toned down.
Midway filed for bankruptcy in early 2009, three months after the release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Layoffs followed, but part of the original Mortal Kombat development team kept their jobs, with Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon going on to found NetherRealm Studios, backed by Warner Bros. NetherRealm’s first game was the rebooted Mortal Kombat in 2011.
“The biggest lesson we learned with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was that there was an opportunity for two separate games that each could embrace their roots without compromising the other,” Boon told Game Informer in 2022. “This resulted in us deciding that the next Mortal Kombat game would be a full reboot and aggressively embrace everything signature about Mortal Kombat. This included going back to a 2D fighting plane, retelling the story of the original trilogy, and going back to our classic Fatalities without restrictions.”
However, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe laid the foundation for NetherRealm’s 2013 DC fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us, which saw a sequel in 2017. Mortal Kombat characters have popped up in the Injustice series as guest characters, keeping the spirit of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe alive in the absence of a sequel.
NetherRealm was expected to follow 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11 with Injustice 3, but instead it released Mortal Kombat 1 this year.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.