‘Mortal Kombat III’ Is Already Being Written and Jeremy Slater Has One Very Clear Goal for It
Warner Bros. is not waiting to see how the dust settles. Before ‘Mortal Kombat II‘ has even reached theaters, the studio has already set its sights on a third installment, bringing back franchise screenwriter Jeremy Slater to begin shaping what comes next for the beloved fighting game adaptation.
Slater made the announcement during a Saturday panel at New York Comic Con, confirming his return as screenwriter for ‘Mortal Kombat III,’ which is currently in the works at New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. He was joined on stage by cast members Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Tati Gabrielle, and Martyn Ford, as well as returning director Simon McQuoid.
Sources say Warner Bros. is extremely high on the second film, a confidence boosted by the release of the first red-band trailer, which pulled in 107 million global views within just 24 hours of its July drop, setting a new all-time record for a red-band trailer. That kind of pre-release momentum clearly gave the studio all the justification it needed to keep the machine running.
Slater revealed to io9 that he has already finished an early exploratory draft, describing his process as a throw-everything-at-the-wall approach to see what sticks, which he said was also how he tackled the second film. As of now, he is about two-thirds of the way through a more polished, finished draft, and he is actively using audience feedback from ‘Mortal Kombat II’ to sharpen the direction of the third chapter.
Speaking to io9, Slater explained that writing in isolation for so long meant he had limited insight, but now that fans are responding to Part II, he can see which characters are resonating and who audiences will want more of going into Part III. That kind of real-time feedback loop is exactly what keeps a franchise from running on autopilot.
His ambition for the third film is straightforward. “In the same way that we took the lessons from one to make two even better, I want to take the lessons from two and make three the best one yet,” he told io9. It is a bold target, but given the upward trajectory the franchise appears to be on, it does not sound like empty talk.
Slater is best known for creating the Disney Plus Marvel series ‘Moon Knight’ starring Oscar Isaac, as well as the hit Netflix series ‘The Umbrella Academy,’ with credits also including ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ and ‘The Exorcist.’ Producer Todd Garner is also confirmed to be returning for the third film, alongside the core producing team that has been with the franchise since the start.
No plot details have been revealed for ‘Mortal Kombat III,’ though the early greenlight signals a clear intent to build this reboot into a long-running franchise. With this third confirmed entry, the current series has already outlasted the 1990s film adaptations, which topped out at two entries before the franchise went dormant. ‘Mortal Kombat II’ hits theaters on May 8.
