While Mortal Kombat II is serving glorious fatalities on screen, NetherRealm development chief and Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon has his eyes firmly set on the fighting game franchise’s future, revealing that the next entry in the series is in the works.
Speaking to Collider about the franchise’s future, Boon said that although he couldn’t reveal any specifics on NetherRealm’s upcoming games, the team was “definitely pursuing another Mortal Kombat game”, alongside upcoming developments “with other forms of media and whatnot” for the franchise.
With the confirmation of a new game, the question is now whether the team will stick to the rebooted narrative introduced with 2023’s Mortal Kombat 1, something that was divisive among fans, or return to its previous timeline seen in 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11. NetherRealm is also rumoured to be working on Injustice 3, the next chapter in its superhero-based fighting game, so it’s also currently unknown which will be the priority.
Boon also spoke about the apparent “feud” between the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter movies, addressing what happened during The Game Awards 2025, where the cast of Street Fighter appeared on stage and threw shade at their rival counterparts, with comedian Andrew Schulz joking that the cast did not show up as “they only care about money”.
“Those things are just part of the three-decade-long rivalry between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. To me, it’s just fun. It’s a fun thing to kind of rile everybody up on,” he explained. “There’s certainly no hard feelings and whatnot. So, at the end of the day, I think we’ll see, when both films have been released, how they both did and stuff. But honestly, I’d love to see them both do well, just because there’s an audience for more, which would be great.”
On the topic of Street Fighter, Boon also admitted that he would love to see a Street Fighter character make an appearance in their games via the franchise’s well-established tradition of cross-IP cameos, which has to date seen the likes of the Terminator, RoboCop, and Homelander make an appearance as guest fighters. While a tough ask considering the two games are rivals in the same genre, having a crossover could lead to some interesting pre-match banter between both sides.
For now, at least, the competition between the two gaming franchises will be one played out on the big screen, with Mortal Kombat II now showing in theatres, with Street Fighter to follow on 16 October 2026.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
