Warner Bros. released the first 10 minutes of Mortal Kombat II on IGN this week, free to watch, a day before the film arrived on digital platforms. The red-band clip opens on Shao Kahn’s siege of Edenia, jumps forward to an adult Kitana training with Jade, and lands on a sequel that is already the franchise’s highest grosser at $128.1 million worldwide, with the free preview timed to the digital launch on June 9 and the 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD release on July 28.
What the First 10 Minutes Reveal
The first three minutes of the clip are set in the past. Emperor Shao Kahn, played by Martyn Ford, faces off against King Jerrod of Edenia, played by Desmond Chiam, while Jerrod’s wife Queen Sindel (Ana Thu Nguyen) and young Princess Kitana (Sophia Xu) watch in horror. The sequence is described as a brief origin story for Kitana, the Edenian princess at the center of the present-day plot.
The film then jumps forward in time to a now-adult Kitana, played by Adeline Rudolph, training with Jade, played by Tati Gabrielle. By the Bleeding Cool accounting, the running time inside the clip breaks down to eight minutes of fighting and two minutes of exposition, a ratio that will not surprise anyone who has played the games. The clip does not give away much beyond what fans already know about the canon, but it sets up new characters and establishes that the villain in this film will be a threat. The full 116-minute film is directed by Simon McQuoid and written by Jeremy Slater, based on the video game created by Ed Boon and John Tobias.
The first 10 minutes clip reveal is hosted on IGN with the red-band label.
The Marketing Math Behind the 10-Minute Drop
Studios typically guard theatrical exclusivity with two-to-three-minute trailers and short TV spots. Releasing a full ten minutes of a new movie online, free, is a different calculation, with Warner Bros. positioning the clip as a red-band, IGN-exclusive tied to a June 9 digital release. The 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD drop follows on July 28. The disc editions include the following special features:
- Mortal Kombat II: Evolving the Saga, a featurette on how the sequel expanded the franchise
- Building the Realms of Mortal Kombat, a featurette on production design and the decaying streets of Edenia
- Mortal Kombat II: Choose Your Fighter, a cast featurette on weapons, costumes, and training
- Klose Quarters Kombat, a featurette on stunts and fight choreography
- A “Boon” to Gamers Everywhere, a sit-down with co-creator Ed Boon on three decades of the franchise
The free clip runs in tandem with the home video release, dropping the day before the digital edition on June 9. The 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD release follows on July 28 with all five featurettes on the disc. The opening 10-minute clip in full is the day-before digital preview, red-band and unfiltered.
The Wager Lands on the Franchise’s Biggest Hit
The clip lands on a sequel that is the franchise’s highest-grossing film to date. Mortal Kombat II opened to $17 million on its first day, including $5.2 million in Thursday previews, and went on to debut with $38.5 million, finishing second at the domestic box office behind The Devil Wears Prada 2, with tracking having projected an opening in the $40 to $45 million range.
In its second weekend the film made $13.4 million, a 65 percent drop, and in its third it added $6.1 million over a four-day Memorial Day frame. The opening theaters numbered 3,503 in the first weekend. Worldwide, the film has grossed $79.2 million domestically and $48.9 million internationally, a total of $128.1 million on an $80 million budget. The film is the direct sequel to the 2021 Mortal Kombat and the fourth entry in the long-running film series.
The franchise’s $128.1 million total is now the biggest worldwide gross in the Mortal Kombat film series to date. Mortal Kombat II’s daily box office totals back the picture, with the film holding on a long tail even as the second-weekend drop was steep.
- $128.1 million worldwide gross as of early June 2026
- $80 million production budget
- $38.5 million opening weekend, second behind The Devil Wears Prada 2
- 65% second-weekend drop, finishing in fourth
- June 9 digital release
- July 28 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD release
The Critical and Audience Reception
IGN’s Max Scoville gave the film an 8 out of 10, the highest score among major outlets cited in the press coverage. The wider critical response is more sober, with 64 percent of 187 critics on Rotten Tomatoes posting a positive review. The site’s consensus calls the film “a self-aware slugfest that plays directly to those who know the difference between Fatalities and Babalities.” Metacritic, scoring 35 critics, put the film at 46 out of 100, in the “mixed or average” range.
It’s big and loud and gruesome and not afraid to have fun. The bar for video game movie sequels isn’t very high, but this one not only clears the bar, it twirls it around like a bo staff.
That quote is from Max Scoville, writing in his Mortal Kombat II review for IGN. Audiences were less enthusiastic, with CinemaScore handing the sequel a B, down from the 2021 original’s B+ grade.
Where Kitana’s Origin Leaves the Sequel
The first 10 minutes is also the on-ramp for Kitana as a major character, with the Edenia siege giving way to an adult Kitana played by Adeline Rudolph. In the film’s flashback, Shao Kahn killed King Jerrod and took over Edenia in the name of Outworld, taking Queen Sindel and Princess Kitana as his consort and adopted daughter. The 10-minute clip is the entry point for Rudolph’s Kitana and Tati Gabrielle’s Jade, who trained together in the present day.
The ensemble around them is large. Karl Urban plays Johnny Cage, the martial arts actor drafted into the Earthrealm team. Returning cast includes Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Damon Herriman as Quan Chi, Max Huang as Kung Lao, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han, and Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion. Ed Boon, the game’s co-creator, has a cameo as a bartender, with archival audio of his “Get over here” line reused during the climax.
Production on the sequel began in June 2023 at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast in Australia, was suspended in July for the SAG-AFTRA strike, resumed in November 2023 after the strike ended, and wrapped in late January 2024. The film was originally scheduled for October 24, 2025, then moved to May 15, 2026, before landing on its final May 8 date.
McQuoid has said in interviews that the third film could explore the material for characters like Cage and Kitana further.
The Home Video Window, From Digital to Disc
The 4K UHD and Blu-ray edition arrives in stores on July 28, with the 10-minute clip packaged in and the featurettes stacked behind it. The film has already cleared the box office bar set by its 2021 predecessor at the international box office.
Simon McQuoid has signaled interest in returning to the franchise, and in interviews has pointed to characters like Johnny Cage and Kitana as the kind of personalities a third film could explore further. Joe Taslim, the actor who plays Bi-Han, was contracted for four additional Mortal Kombat films if the studio chose to build a franchise, per the film’s Wikipedia entry. McQuoid has also expressed interest in including more female characters in the franchise going forward.
