The Big Picture

Collider’s Therese Lacson talks with
Mortal Kombat 2
star Lewis Tan at SDCC 2024.
Tan teases the
Mortal Kombat
sequel will have even more fights, longer battles, and more gore – plus new characters joining the fray.
He also discusses the canceled
Shadow and Bone
series,
Six of Crows
, challenging sequences,
Deadpool & Wolverine
cameo, and emphasizes the importance of original Asian stories in cinema.

“Finish him!” The buzz is real for Mortal Kombat 2, set to punch its way into theaters on October 24, 2025. Based on the legendary video game series, Mortal Kombat has won the hearts of many thanks to its wild mix of playable characters, each with their own badass skills, and of course, those insanely bloody “Fatalities.”

The first Mortal Kombat movie, released in 2021, follows Cole Young (Lewis Tan), a newcomer not found in the games, who dreams of making it big in MMA. His life takes a turn when he discovers he’s been chosen for the Mortal Kombat tournament, an ancient contest where Earth’s best warriors face off against Outworld’s monstrous fights. Victory means safety for Earthrealm, but defeat spells doom as Outworld gains the right to invade and conquer.

With the hype ramping up around the upcoming Mortal Kombat sequel, Collider’s Therese Lacson chatted with Tan at San Diego Comic Con 2024 to get the details on what fans can expect from the sequel, if there’s any hope for continuing Shadow and Bone with the Six of Crows script, and his cameo in another Comic-Con darling, Deadpool & Wolverine. Check out our interview with Tan in the player above, or read the full conversation below.

Mortal Kombat 2 Cast Lewis Tan , Karl Urban , Jessica McNamee , Mehcad Brooks , Tadanobu Asano , Ludi Lin , Chin Han , Joe Taslim , Hiroyuki Sanada , Josh Lawson , Max Huang , Tati Gabrielle , Adeline Rudolph , Martyn Ford , Desmond Chiam , Ana Thu Nguyen , Damon Herriman Main Genre Martial Arts Studio(s) New Line Cinema , Atomic Monster , Broken Road Productions Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Expand

Ryan Reynolds Was Jotting Down Lines Between Takes in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’
Tan’s Shatterstar makes his return in the threequel.
Image via 20th Century Fox

COLLIDER: I’m just gonna jump in with your most recent project, Deadpool & Wolverine. I’m curious how the filming process was for that film because, obviously, you’re not in a ton of it. Did you film it all at once? Was is one day, or was it split up?

LEWIS TAN: Not to give away any spoilers, but obviously, Deadpool is having a birthday party with some of his closest friends. Very surprisingly, he brought back Shatterstar for some weird, twisted reason because the family is sick like that. We had a lot of different improv moments at the birthday party. Before and after Hugh Jackman and Ryan [Reynolds] go on this wild journey together, it’s the birthday scene. It took about two weeks.

What surprised you the most working on the set for this film? We can’t go into too many spoilers, but what was the most surprising thing for you working with them?

TAN: I did the second movie with them. For me, working with Hugh Jackman, even if it was just for a moment– My favorite movie ever of any comic book movie is Logan, the James Mangold film. I think it’s a masterpiece. So to just be in front of Wolverine on set like that was incredible, but it didn’t really surprise me. The guys have a really good back-and-forth, very easy-going, and they’re obviously incredible with improv. Ryan will write lines for other characters between takes. He’ll sit there, thinking, and then say, “OK, why don’t you try to say this, and you say that?” It’s just wild how his mind works. Very impressive, very talented.

That sounds kind of chaotic but also kind of fun.

TAN: That’s what we like—chaos and fun.

‘Mortal Kombat 2’ Promises to Deliver What the Fans Want

I know that they had a test screening of Mortal Kombat 2 a couple of days ago, and I heard some good things.

TAN: I did too. I got a couple of very nice text messages from the producer, Todd Garner.

Can you tease anything about Mortal Kombat 2 going into it?

TAN: All I can say is that this particular producer, Todd Garner, and the studio really do listen to the fans in regards to what people are tweeting, what people are writing, what people are talking about, what people liked about the first movie, what they didn’t like about the first movie. It’s a hard IP to tackle. There are hundreds of characters in the game that they then translate into the movie. Where do you go? How many storylines? It’s endless. If you know the Mortal Kombat lore, you need, like, a degree in Mortal Kombat to really understand everything.

For the sequel, I can promise many more fights, much longer fights. It’s very gory, it’s very bloody. We have Karl Urban playing Johnny Cage. We have a good friend of mine, Adeline [Rudolph], who’s playing Kitana. Martyn Ford is playing Shao Khan. There’s a tournament in this one. That’s all I can say before they get mad at me. But look, they really do listen to the people and what we learned from the first movie, and we’ve made it 100 times better in the second movie. I’m very excited for fans to see it.

Would you say tone-wise it’s different, or does it still have the same tone as the first?

TAN: I would say the tone is slightly different. It’s a little ramped up. Like I said, it’s hard to tackle and navigate that storyline because they did it with a new character that’s not in the game. It’s like, whose story do we tell? How do we tell it? How do we introduce this to the audience of people who maybe don’t know Mortal Kombat as well as some of the fans? We tackled that problem in the first movie, and now it’s just off to the races. We can just go for it. That’s what the second movie has. It’s just wild, crazy nonsense, and it’s incredible.

I just have one more question about that, and it’s about your character, Cole. Obviously, he’s not in the games; he’s an original character, but he does have a tie-in with a game character that we learned at the end of the first film. How does he deal with the revelation of his family and his heritage, so to speak?

TAN: The game started with only a few characters, and now there are over 100 different characters. It’s nice to see the evolution of these things. You see Sonya Blade [Jessica McNamee], and they have a kid. You see the evolution of different characters. For me, it was great because Hiroyuki Sanada is one of the legends, one of the best actors ever. If you haven’t seen Shōgun, definitely watch that. It’s incredible. And Tadanobu Asano, who plays Raiden, is in Shōgun. The Mortal Kombat Gang is nominated for Emmys, which is pretty incredible.

To answer your question, it’s just awesome to be a part of that. He’s part of Scorpion’s lineage. In the second movie, I tried to add some of the choreography and hint at that Japanese-era lineage of the character. At the end of the first movie, you only get to see Cole fight once in the very end when he has his powers, so it’s good for me to showcase a little bit of a different style and hint at the lineage through the choreography and movements.

A Screenplay for ‘Six of Crows’ Exists
“Make your voices heard, and maybe it’ll come to pass.”
Image via Netflix

Moving on to Shadow and Bone, I have to say that was one of my favorite shows. I loved seeing Tolya and Tamar [Anna Leong Brophy] and everyone joining the cast. Can you tell me your favorite memory or one of the best takeaways from working with such a large cast?

TAN: I was just with Patty Gibson and Archie [Renaux] last night. They’re out here. Shoutout, boys. It’s sad because it was a really great family to work with. We were shooting in Budapest. I learned how to ride a horse out there. That was incredible. That turned out to be the horse that Henry Cavill rode in The Witcher. I think it was in Game of Thrones, too, actually.

Oh my god, a famous horse!

TAN: The horse is getting paid more than me, for sure. [Laughs] I thought that I was amazing at riding horses because I learned so quickly, but then the horse rider told me it was the most trained horse in all of Hollywood, so it was very easy to ride.

The horse was doing the job for you.

TAN: [Laughs] Yeah, I don’t know if that was a fond memory that I have. No, I had a great time working on that. It’s sad that it got canceled. I know they wrote the screenplay for Six of Crows. To all the fans out there, I know you want to see that, so make your voices heard, and maybe it’ll come to pass.

I’m sure they will make their voices heard. I love Six of Crows.

TAN: It’s my favorite book of the whole series.

It’s one of the best.

The ‘Mortal Kombat’ MMA Scene Forged Lewis Tan in Fire
Image via Warner Bros.

In your career, is there a specific scene or sequence that stands out to you as particularly difficult? How did you overcome that challenge?

TAN: Well, I do a lot of action films, so a lot of the scenes are quite difficult. The very first thing that I shot for Mortal Kombat was literally the opening of that MMA fight. I shot it with an actor slash martial artist named Ian Streetz. He’s a 13-time Lethwei champion. If you don’t know what Lethwei is, it’s Muay Thai boxing with no gloves, and you can use your head. So, it’s insane.

This guy has won 13 of these fights, and he is my first day-one fight of Mortal Kombat where you have a huge crowd watching. Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure, it’s the first day, and I had to fight this guy. I fought him for three days straight. That was really intense. Although the production designer did an incredible job of making it look very rough, the actual floor of the mat of the ring in the arena felt like sandpaper. So I was just, like, rubbing my skin on the sandpaper. Me and Ian lost the toes, feet, elbows—everything. I knew what I was in for once I finished those first three days.

That sounds kind of horrific.

TAN: It’s committed! So if you didn’t like the movie, just know… [Laughs]

Did you walk away with bruises?

TAN: Yes. I walked away with a lot of bruises.

Oh my god, well I’m hoping it’s not that bad in the second movie.

TAN: It’s worse! It’s literally worse.

Well, I’m looking forward to watching it then. [Laughs]

Lewis Tan Highlights the Power of Original Stories for Asian Representation
Image via Comic-Con

Speaking as an Asian to another Asian, I love seeing how the industry has changed and become more open, but what do you think would be the ideal next milestone?

TAN: That’s a good question. We’ve had Asian Marvel superheroes, we’ve had success in different areas. I think the milestone would be to create original stories. That’s the key. I’ve been saying this for a long time. We wanna tell original stories from our perspective. There are beautiful things about every culture that you can tell in a specific way. We need emerging artists, emerging directors, and emerging writers. It all starts with a screenplay, right? Somebody has to tell something unique, and then that person has to cast the right people for it. But it’s about how you express yourself in a way that’s different. What perspective can you bring to cinema that is unique to you and personalized to you? That’s the beauty of cinema in general. I think every culture has a special story to tell. Asian filmmakers out there, young Asian filmmakers, tell your story. Tell the thing that you feel the most passionate about. That’s what’s going to make the biggest difference and have the most cultural impact. It’s nice to have Asian characters in different films and filling in different spots, but truthfully, what we need are unique storytellers, writers and directors. So to all you kids out there, put the pen to paper and get to work.

I think adaptation-wise, it’s really nice to see. Especially with something like Shadow and Bone, where originally on the page, everyone was essentially a white character. It was great to see Jessie Mei Li and the embracing of a more diverse story. But I agree. I think original stories, especially with Asian culture, they’re not just within our own countries, but also like Asian-Americans and Asians who were born in the Western world. It’s a different culture.

TAN: There’s room for all of it in all genres. We need revolutionary producers and showrunners willing to cast diverse roles, but we also need fresh perspectives and storytellers in the indie film market. We need to let those voices be heard and create a space for them to tell their stories. That would be the next step in expanding our perspectives.

Mortal Kombat 2 is set to release on October 24, 2025. To hold us over, Mortal Kombat is currently available to stream on Netflix.

Watch on Netflix