Ana Thu Nguyen as Queen Sindel in Mortal Kombat II.
Mortal Kombat!!! There is no single fan of the Mortal Kombat franchise who isn't familiar with that cry when the battle is about to begin. 2026 was primed to bring some heavy-duty titles to the fore, and this all-action franchise was on that list.
This past weekend, Mortal Kombat II, a sequel to the sleeper-hit reboot released in 2021, premiered in theaters. The 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot came on the heels of Paul W.S. Anderson's 1995 entry, which was both commercially and critically successful, and its 1997 sequel, which was both a critical and commercial disappointment.
Mortal Kombat II saw the return of much of the central cast of the 2021 reboot and director Simon McQuoid, with Jeremy Slater stepping in to write the screenplay. Initially, the sequel's release date was moved back to reduce competition.
However, Warner Bros. plan fell spectacularly short, with The Devil Wears Prada 2, which reunites Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci after two decades, now the sequel's competition at the box office. The film is also having to contend with the record-setting biopic Michael, starring Jafaar Jackson as his late uncle.
Mortal Kombat II delivered an impressive opening weekend haul at the box office, grossing almost $65 million worldwide in three days, much of which are stateside numbers. Its international performance is proving underwhelming at the moment, but thankfully, that isn't stopping the prospect of Round 3. On May 8, McQuoid, the director of the first two Mortal Kombat reboots in 2021 and 2026, while speaking to Entertainment Weekly, discussed the prospect of Mortal Kombat III.
“We knew how we were ending this film ,” McQuoid said. “You don’t want to be overly confident. I never want to be cocky about how anything’s going to land or play. You think about it, and you theorize it.
So I guess I’m still in that mode where it hasn’t even come out yet. Ask me after May 8. ” The director would later sound firmer about what comes next, though: “There’s so much to draw from, and that’s both overwhelming and really exciting. There’s always a ‘What about that character?
’ It never really stops. ” COLLIDER. Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends.
Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️Rambo 🍸James Bond 🏺Indiana Jones 🔧John McClane 🎭Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → QUESTION 1 / 10THE MISSION 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner?
The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart.
DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10TRAVEL STYLE 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow.
BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel.
The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10UNDER FIRE 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive.
ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10DOWNTIME 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest?
Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation.
DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10COMMUNICATION 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost.
BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10THE VILLAIN 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there.
BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them.
Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10LOYALTY 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there.
BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10TOOLKIT 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested.
CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10THE COST 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down.
EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10THE LAST STAND 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now?
The last question is the most honest one. AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending.
Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next.
ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is… Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
YOUR PARTNER Rambo Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home.
What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. YOUR PARTNER James Bond Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true.
James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious.
But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
YOUR PARTNER Indiana Jones Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside.
He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about.
Assuming you survive them. YOUR PARTNER John McClane Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks.
John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts.
Yippee-ki-yay. YOUR PARTNER Ethan Hunt Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist.
He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Is 'Mortal Kombat II' Worth Watching? At the time of writing, the film has earned over $60 million worldwide. Though it's still too early to judge its overall box office performance, there is clearly room for improvement internationally, as across 71 international markets, Mortal Kombat II earned roughly $15 million less than its U.S. counterpart.
Mortal Kombat II features Karl Urban and Adeline Rudolph as Johnny Cage and Kitana, respectively, with returning actors Mehcad Brooks, Jessica McNamee, Ludi Lin, Josh Lawson, Lewis Tan, and Shōgun duo Tadanobu Asano and Hiroyuki Sanada bolstering the ensemble. The sequel has earned more positive reviews than its predecessor, sitting at a 65% critics' score and a"Verified Hot" 90% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
In his review, Collider's Aidan Kelley praised the movie, but went ahead to highlight that the 1995 adaptation directed by Paul W.S. Anderson remains the benchmark for the franchise. Get deeper Mortal Kombat coverage — subscribe to our newsletter Subscribe to the newsletter to get in-depth breakdowns of Mortal Kombat II: box-office context, critic vs. audience analysis, cast and sequel prospects, and thoughtful franchise perspective—essential reading for fans who want richer film coverage.
Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Mortal Kombat II is now showing in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Mortal Kombat II Like Follow Followed R Action Fantasy Adventure Release Date May 8, 2026 Runtime 116 Minutes Director Simon McQuoid Cast See All Writers Jeremy Slater Producers E. Bennett Walsh, James Wan, Simon McQuoid, Toby Emmerich, Todd Garner Prequel Mortal Kombat Franchise Mortal Kombat Powered by Expand Collapse
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