Mortal Kombat II has been heralded for its thrilling battle sequences that embrace the franchise’s patented brutality, as well as its handling of fan-favorites like Kitana and Johnny Cage. That said, not everyone received the star treatment, as one character suffered a truly unexpected and rather insulting death by the time the credits rolled. Now that death has been officially addressed, as well as a tease for a surprising potential return.
Many fans were surprised to see Cole Young, who was the central character in the first film, brutally killed in a sliver of screen time in the sequel. Now writer Jeremy Slater has addressed Cole’s brutal death, and has even teased that he might return down the line. In an interview with MovieWeb, Slater said, “The reality with Cole is I love the actor Lewis Tan. I did not love the character of Cole Young. I knew going in that I was aligned with most of the Mortal Kombat hardcore fanbase, where everyone likes Lewis and likes what he brings to the role, but everyone felt like Cole was the guy who didn’t belong here.”
“It’s like watching an Avengers movie. ‘Oh, there’s Captain America and Iron Man, and there’s Bob the Milkman.’ He’s not part of these characters that I have loved for the last 30 years, and he’s taking real estate and screen time away from the characters that I do love. I was one of those fans that, when the 2021 movie came out, just being like, ‘This guy doesn’t belong here’,” Slater said.
Slater praised Tan as an actor and also noted that the character has its fans, but ultimately, it was better to kill the character off and shift the focus to the other iconic characters. Slater did say that he hopes the series isn’t done with Lewis Tan, and he would love to see Tan come back into the fold.
“So, we knew for the sequel our options were to double down on that and to dig in our heels and say, you know, the hardcore fans are just not responding to this guy like we hoped they would. Let’s cut our losses and let’s see if there is a way to bring Lewis Tan back into the fold in future installments in a way that fans will embrace,” Slater said.
“I will say Lewis is awesome, and he definitely gets shortchanged in this movie. But, if I had my way, this will not be the last that we see of Lewis Tan in the Mortal Kombat universe. I felt very, very bad about killing him because I know he did have his fans, and I think he’s awesome,” Slater said.
While the first thought goes to having Cole make a return, Slater does refer specifically to Tan and not Cole. Could we see Lewis Tan make a return to the franchise as another character, or could we see him return as a very different Cole? The sequel did bring back Kano and Kung Lao from the dead, and both in very different ways, and with Mortal Kombat, pretty much anything is possible when it comes to a character coming back from the dead, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Mortal Kombat II is in theaters now.
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