The second movie in the recently-rebooted Mortal Kombat film series is seeing another change in its theatrical release date. Originally slated to hit theaters on May 15, 2026, the movie will instead be released a week earlier – on May 8, 2026. According to a report by Deadline, Mortal Kombat 2, along with Sheep Detectives, are seeing a change in their release date to make way for The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Along with this, the report has also indicated that Mortal Kombat 2 has been getting positive reactions from research screenings that have been held.
It is worth noting that Mortal Kombat 2 was originally slated to be released in theaters in October 2025. However, plans were subsequently changed, with the movie’s release being pushed back all the way to May 2026. A previous report indicates that the decision to delay the movie by so many months was made due to the success of its Red Band trailer back in July – which managed to get over 100 million views across various social media platforms worldwide.
May 2026 was also chosen as a general release window thanks to the relative sparseness of competition for Mortal Kombat 2, with the primary competitor in the month being Final Destination: Bloodlines, and other movies like Is God Is. The October release window, on the other hand would have featured quite a bit of competition, with movies like Springsteen Deliver Me From Nowhere and Regretting You set to be released in theaters.
Mortal Kombat 2 will continue the story from its predecessor, and will feature Karl Urban playing the role of Johnny Cage. Urban is joined by Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada. Martyn Ford will also be in the movie, playing Shao Khan.
The first movie in this rebooted series was launched into theaters back in 2021, and proved to be an incredible hit despite the pandemic going on at the time. The movie, according to a report, grossed $23.3 million during its opening weekend in the US alone. The movie was able to beat internal expectations at Warner Bros., which expected to make closer to $15 million in its opening weekend.
In the meantime, Mortal Kombat 2 screenwriter Jeremy Slater has also confirmed during a panel at New York Comic Con that work had begun on writing a third movie in the franchise as well.
“Our friends at New Line and Warner Bros. are so happy with this movie,” said Slater during the panel. “They are so excited, they are so convinced that there is a giant fan base waiting for it, they’ve already hired me to start writing the next instalment.”
While Warner Bros. is essentially gearing up for the release of the second movie for the time being, the history of the Mortal Kombat franchise is also getting a celebration of its history at the end of the month with the release of Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection.
