Mortal Kombat 2 was set to hit theaters on October 24, just a week before Halloween. It seemed like good timing for a hyper-violent video game classic about warriors fighting horrors from other dimensions. Apparently Warner Bros. disagreed. The studio has now delayed the sequel by nearly seven months because it thinks the corny fist-fest can make more money in the spring.
That’s according to Deadline, which reported the news late on Friday before the Labor Day holiday weekend. It claims “research screenings have been strong” and that Warner Bros. didn’t want to bury its latest video game adaptation in a “crowded late October frame” between Springsteen Deliver Me From Nowhere and Regretting You.
So instead, Mortal Kombat 2 will now come out on May 15, 2026. Avengers: Doomsday was originally set to open that month but was pushed back to December of next year. The only real competition will be The Mandalorian and Grogu which arrives at the end of next May. So even if Mortal Kombat 2 ends up having a surprisingly long tail, it’ll probably get kicked out of most theaters by Star Wars.
The sequel brings in The Boys‘ Karl Urban as the shade-wearing, split-kicking Johnny Cage and its July trailer looked decent. If it has the budget to double-down on some of the big spectacle fight sequences the 2021 reboot was missing it could be fun. Though I still think its cheesy gore-fest sensibility was a great fit for Halloween. I don’t usually like slasher movies but I’ll make an exception if Scorpion’s the one doing the impaling.