Mortal Kombat II Karl Urban Steps Into the Arena — And the Tournament Is Finally Here
Warner Bros. dropped the second official trailer for Mortal Kombat II today during IGN Fan Fest 2026, and if you had any doubts this franchise was leveling up — consider them finished. This is a different kind of sequel, one that actually delivers on the tournament the first film spent two hours building toward, and it looks absolutely brutal.
At the center of it all is Karl Urban as Johnny Cage — washed-up action star turned reluctant world savior. The trailer opens on Cage at a fan convention, sitting alone at a signing table that nobody is visiting. It's a clever, self-aware bit of comedic staging before the film plunges him straight into Outworld chaos. Urban, known best for his work in The Boys and The Lord of the Rings, looks like he was born for this role. His charm, physicality, and sharp comic timing are exactly what the franchise needed to inject new energy.
"We've created a massive summer blockbuster… it's going to feel massive when it comes out."
— Director Simon McQuoid
The Tournament Is Finally Here
One of the biggest critiques of the 2021 film was that the Mortal Kombat tournament itself never actually happened — the whole movie was a prequel to the main event. That's been corrected. Mortal Kombat II puts us squarely inside the competition, with Earthrealm's champions facing off against Outworld's finest under the dark rule of Shao Kahn, played with terrifying authority by Martyn Ford. The trailer teases a showdown between Liu Kang and Shao Kahn that could very well be the film's climactic battle.
The new footage also expands the roster in a major way. Adeline Rudolph joins as Kitana, Tati Gabrielle brings Jade to life, and fan-favorite Baraka makes a menacing appearance opposite Cage himself. On the villain side, Noob Saibot's debut is a particularly exciting tease — Sub-Zero's wraith transformation from the games finally rendered on the big screen. Scorpion and Sub-Zero's legendary rivalry continues as well, adding the mythological weight that fans of the franchise have always craved.
Cast
Johnny Cage Kitana. Jade. Cole Young.
Karl Urban. Adeline Rudolph Tati Gabrielle. Lewis Tan
A Franchise With Momentum
Director Simon McQuoid returns, and his confidence is evident in every frame of this trailer. The first film earned $84.5 million worldwide — an impressive number given it dropped during the pandemic. Expectations for this sequel are significantly higher, and McQuoid himself has attributed the delay from October 2025 to May 2026 to the film's own growing ambition: "Every time people have seen this movie, it's gained momentum."
New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. have already greenlit Mortal Kombat 3, signaling full faith in the franchise as a long-term cinematic property. The second film is positioned as the centerpiece of a planned trilogy — the tournament itself — which makes this installment the narrative and emotional core of the entire story. Screenwriter Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight) is handling the script, and from the looks of the trailer, the story hits the right balance of spectacle, mythology, and character work.
The film arrives in theaters and IMAX across North America on May 8, 2026. If this trailer is any indication, the wait has been worth every second.