With Mortal Kombat II tearing up the cinema this very second, we grabbed a few minutes with director David McQuoid.
Following on from 2021’s Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II sees the battle of the fate of Earthrealm hit fever pitch, as Karl Urban‘s Johnny Cage joins Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks’ Jax, Lewis Tan’s Cole Young, and the rest of the gang as they take on the interdimensional warlord Shao Khan (Martyn Ford) in a battle to the death for the fate of the entire multiverse. That’s a big operation to ride honcho on, so we spoke to director Simon McQuoid to get some insight into his creative process.
Travis Johnson: If the first Mortal Kombat was all set up, putting all the pieces in place, this one’s the payoff. As a filmmaker, did you feel any pressure trying to make sure you pay off everything not only in the first film, but what we’ve come to expect from the franchise overall?
Simon McQuoid: I didn’t really feel a lot of pressure, to be honest. I just felt like I knew the task at hand, and I knew that we wanted to make something that was going to really utilise all of the treasures in the treasure chest that Ed Boon and his brilliant team have made over the last few decades.
And so it was really about making sure that we learned and built on what had happened in the first one and took the best bits of that – the opening, Kano, some other great stuff – and then bring that and maximize it for the second one and create a much more of an emotional experience. Both emotional for the characters, but also an epic cinematic experience for the audience.
Travis Johnson: Now you’ve got a lot of characters to draw on from the history of the franchise, and that can be difficult to balance, but this film sees the debut, in this continuity at least, of fan fave Johnny Cage, played by Karl Urban. How did that decision come about? I heard at one point there was talk of a Johnny Cage solo film, but now he’s front and center for the direct sequel.
Simon McQuoid: Yeah, I mean, there was never a Johnny Cage solo film.
Travis Johnson: Wikipedia lies!
Simon McQuoid: Yeah, exactly! Don’t believe everything you read.
It was a process that started with, how do we make sure that Johnny’s character can go on a satisfying journey, both for the audience and for the character. When we first met him, he was gonna be a shell of his former self. and at this very low ebb in his career, and then taking that and knowing what Karl’s abilities are. If you look at Bones in Star Trek or even in the Bourne film that he was in, he has an incredible ability to make sure the comedy never gets too broad. And with a character like Johnny Cage, which in the wrong hands could go in a bad way, Karl was able to ground it and deliver a performance that’s both funny but also grounded and has some layers to it. So you really do feel that he’s not in a good way when we first met him, but he grows throughout.
Travis Johnson: The current state of action cinema is really interesting. We’re getting a lot of interesting stuff out of Southeast Asia, a lot of indie VOD stuff, and of course your big blockbusters, your John Wicks and all that. What was your approach to staging and choreographing the action in this one? What influences were you drawing on?
Simon McQuoid: I don’t know that I was drawing on any particular influences, specifically. I don’t always watch many action movies. I don’t watch something just for the action. I love movies that are built on character and world building and scale. And I also like films that have an element of authenticity and realism and sort of an earth quality to them, even if they are fantasy or science fiction, that really matters to me.
I actually consciously try not to think of other films when I’m making it – it’s just the stuff that sort of seeps into me over the years. The one thing I’m always searching for is how do I get an audience to believe?
And there are good examples of that. I mean, one great example recently that I’ve thought was just phenomenal was the series Andor. I thought that just took it to another level, actually. The production design in that, so much of that was so beautifully crafted and so beautifully made and considered. But those worlds that we went to and that story we followed was really satisfying. And so they’re the sort of things that I really love and I really get a kick out of.
Travis Johnson: Any plans for Mortal Kombat III yet?
Simon McQuoid: The studio are very, feeling really good about this. We all never get too far ahead of ourselves and start patting each other on the back until the film has actually come out and we get a sense of whether the audience is telling us that we want a third one. So, you know, in the spirit of that, I’m not really getting too far ahead of myself, but Jeremy’s [screenwriter Jeremy Slater] writing the third one and people are feeling good about this.
Mortal Kombat II is in cinemas now. Read the Blunt review here:
MORE IN Film
