The makers are awaiting the release of Mortal Kombat II. This time, the fan favourite champions are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earth realm and its defenders.
Karl Urban stars as Johnny Cage, alongside Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, with Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han and Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion. Director Simon McQuoid returns to helm the follow up to his explosive 2021 cinematic adventure, from a screenplay by Jeremy Slater, based on the videogame created by Ed Boon and John Tobias.
Playing the character of one of the biggest villains of all time is Martyn Ford. Shao Kahn looms large over all the tournaments. His power only grows as he conquers realm after realm.
Talking about essaying the role of Shao Kahn, Martyn Ford says, "Shao Kahn is the emperor. He’s the kingpin. He’s evil and he’s deceptive, but he’s also something of a genius! Earthrealm is another trophy for him. He’s completely driven by his ego and wanting to mark his place in history. The character preparation was very interesting, because he’s half scorpion, half human. So that was a bizarre fantasy, although we absolutely wanted to bring an element of reality into that."
The biggest challenge for Martyn was the prosthetics process he had to undertake each and every day, which took around four hours. "The problem with prosthetics is that the skin can only take so much. The prosthetics team have to use excessive amounts of very strong glue to place the pieces onto your face, onto your neck and onto your body. And then they have to use acetone to take the glue off, so it’s a lot of irritation for the skin. The boredom factor of sitting in a make-up chair for three to four hours isn’t such a problem. I was also awake five hours before anyone else, and didn’t finish until two hours afterwards, by the time everything gets taken off. But I’m not complaining - I loved every minute. Working with everyone on this film was an absolute joy and I’m very proud to be a part of it," Ford adds.
The film is produced by Todd Garner, E. Bennett Walsh, James Wan, Toby Emmerich and Simon McQuoid, and executive produced by Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Jeremy Slater, Ed Boon and Lawrence Kasanoff.
New Line Cinema Presents an Atomic Monster/Broken Road Production, a Fireside Films Production, Mortal Kombat II. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, only in Cinemas and IMAX across India in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on May 8, 2026.