Mortal Kombat 1 hasn’t had extensive support for almost a full year now, as NetherRealm Studios has only put out a few minor patches after it stated the game would get no more character DLC. The abruptness of this announcement caught many by surprise. However, series co-creator Ed Boon has revealed to ComicBook how a possible character crossover with the recent movies was loosely planned but never saw the light of day.
While doing press for the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2, Boon was asked if Cole Young, the brand-new audience stand-in who made his debut in the 2021 film, would ever make an appearance in a Mortal Kombat game. He then spoke of plans that didn’t come to fruition.
“Yes, he almost did [make an cameo in the series],” said Boon. “When we were making Mortal Kombat 1, the last game we did, we had these assist fighters called Kameo fighters. And for a time we were talking about freaking everybody out and doing a Cole Young Kameo fighter in the game just to kind of connect the games and the films together.”
However, plans changed and Cole stayed on the silver screen.
“But then we ran out of time. We had to start the next game, and then it just never happened,” said Boon.
It’s unclear exactly what that unannounced game is since the studio has stayed silent on its current project. There’s speculation that it’s another Injustice game, though.
Reports around Mortal Kombat 1‘s dismal future were circulating just before its final batch of fighters came out and cited the low sales of its expansion, Khaos Reigns, as the reason support was being slashed. Dataminers found other character slots inside the game, too, and some theorized the files pointed to Kotal Kahn, Chameleon (not to be confused with Khameleon, who is in MK1), Erron Black, Nightwolf, Cassie Cage, or Kung Jin being added sometime down the line. Obviously, none were confirmed, and it’s difficult to say if these were tentative plans, red herrings, or actually accurate. And since dataminers didn’t seem to find data regarding Cole, it’s a mystery how far these plans to put him in the game went.
Regardless, Mortal Kombat has had some crossovers with the films in the past. Mortal Kombat 11 had a costume pack based around the 1995 original and brought in the voices and likenesses of Linden Ashby, Bridgette Wilson, and Christopher Lambert, who played Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and Raiden, respectively. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s Shang Tsung was also the title’s first DLC character.
Mortal Kombat 1 was a bit more modern with its movie crossover. Kitana, Shao Khan, Johnny Cage, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero all received skins that made them look like their counterparts in Mortal Kombat 2. The abruptness of this skin drop and lack of any sort of release date synergy — the gear dropped almost a year before the movie’s release — gave the impression these costumes were rushed out the door in order to send MK1 into the Netherrealm early so Warner Bros. could release the game’s Definitive Edition and move on. Even with this strange setup, MK1, as of April 2026, has sold 8 million units, still making it one of the more successful fighting games of the generation.
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