Animated 'Mortal Kombat' Movie Starring Joel McHale And Jennifer Carpenter To Debut This Year

Mortal Kombat is taking the fight across different mediums. An animated Mortal Kombat movie is currently in development at Warner Bros. Animation and is set to debut before the new live-action film even hits theaters. Warner Bros. Animation has set the animated Mortal Kombat movie, titled Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, for a 2020 debut with Joel McHale and Jennifer Carpenter set to star.The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that an animated movie based on the wildly popular fighting video game franchise Mortal Kombat will debut in the first half of this year. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge will star Community alum Joel McHale as Johnny Cage while Dexter's Jennifer Carpenter will voice star as Sonya Blade.

McHale and Carpenter lead a cast that includes Jordan Rodrigues as Lui Kang; Patrick Seitz as Scorpion and Hanzo Hasashi; Steve Blum as Sub-Zero; Artt Butler as Shang Tsung; Darin De Paul as Quan Chi; Robin Atkin Downes as Kano; David B. Mitchell as Raiden; Ike Amadi as Jax Briggs; Kevin Michael Richardson as Goro; Grey Griffin as Kitana and Satoshi Hasashi; and Fred Tatasciore as Demon Torturer.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge will be directed by Ethan Spaulding (Batman: Assault on ArkhamJustice League: Throne of Atlantis)  from a script by Jeremy Adams (SupernaturalTeen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans). Rick Morales (Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders) produces alongside Jim Krieg (Batman: Gotham by Gaslight) while Sam Register acts as executive producer.

This is certainly a fast turn-around for a film that we didn't even know was coming, despite the constant updates about the Mortal Kombat live-action movie produced by James Wan and directed by Simon McQuoid. But seeing as this is coming from Warner Bros. Animation, which releases an impressive array of direct-to-video DC animated films every year. Mortal Kombat doesn't have much of a following outside of the video game community (and outside of being a meme), so this might be a clever piece of cross-promotion that builds the hype for the live-action Mortal Kombat film. Still it is a little odd since no one was really asking for a Mortal Kombat animated movie, but it could likely be a direct-to-video hit considering last year's Mortal Kombat 11 was the 5th best seller of 2019 across all gaming platforms.