Mortal Kombat Legends have quietly become a regular staple for Warner Brothers animated features, alongside an established tradition of DC Comics inspired cartoon stories, but a crossover between the two was not to be - according to a new interview excerpt. Read on for details:
Johnny Cage takes centre stage in mere days when Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match takes the series into an imagined adventure set in neon-soaked nineteen-eighties Los Angeles, but things could've gone even further afield if a pitched crossover between the Mortal Kombat and DC animated universes was realised.
Jeremy Adams -- writer of the MK Legends series, seventies kung fu-inspired Batman: Soul of the Dragon, and Justice League: Warworld -- has told ComicBook.com that Warner Brothers rejected a pitch for a Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe animated crossover movie: "... 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."
I would lower your expectations. 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.
The 2008 Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe video game crossover was the final title published by Midway Games before Warner Brothers acquired the Chicago based developer who became NetherRealm Studios.
Following years behind a partnership between Capcom and Marvel Comics established over multiple games; the eighth installment in the Mortal Kombat series proved highly divisive, falling short on plans to expand the game with Quan Chi and Harley Quinn DLC, and considered a low point for many die-hard fans.
Interest in a prospective follow-up crossover has been tepid ever since. In 2012, NetherRealm Creative Head Ed Boon noted the creation of Injustice: Gods Among Us made a crossover less likely, elaborating "we loved how our last Mortal Kombat game was strictly Mortal Kombat". A crossover sequel was shot down again in 2016.
Injustice received a loose animated adaptation in 2021, but that hasn't stopped the worlds of Mortal Kombat and the DC Universe meeting multiple times over the years.
Peacemaker will be the latest DC Comics hero to meet the MK fighters, entering Mortal Kombat 1 as downloadable content in The Kombat Pack. He follows behind Mortal Kombat 11's Joker, and Mortal Kombat guests in Injustice: Raiden, Sub-Zero, and Scorpion.
[Related Article: Jim Lee Draws Mortal Kombat's Kitana]
A full-on battle with Mortal Kombat has been off-limits even to comic books, but Injustice has found itself at war with Eternia in Injustice vs Masters of the Universe, and more recently in a revival of the lapsed universe in Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent -- a multiverse spanning adventure with Superman's son.
Would you like to see MK and DC go at it again? What format would be most enticing? Share your thoughts in the comments below and discuss more animation in the Media & Merchandise forum!