In April 2021, the Mortal Kombat reboot premiered both in theaters and on HBO Max, and by the following January, Warner Bros. officially greenlit Mortal Kombat 2. However, the sequel’s development has really picked steam over the last few weeks thanks to casting, starting with Karl Urban being selected to play Johnny Cage. Well, now Mortal Kombat 2 has reportedly chosen the actress who will play Kitana in this continuity, and it’ll result in the movie delivering a Chilling Adventures of Sabrina reunion.
Last week, it was reported that Tati Gabrielle was in “final negotiations” to play Jade. Along with credits like Uncharted and You, Gabrielle is well known for starring as Prudence Blackwood in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and now word’s come from THR in that Adeline Rudolph, who played Agatha in the supernatural series accessible to Netflix subscriber, has boarded Mortal Kombat 2 as its Kitana. Rudolph has also appeared in Riverdale and Netflix’s short-lived Resident Evil series, and she’s playing Bobbie Jo Song in the upcoming movie Hellboy: The Crooked Man.
Introduced to the video game franchise in 1993’s Mortal Kombat II, Kitana, who wields deadly steel fans in battle, was initially depicted as the daughter of Outwordl emperor Shao Kahn, who’s also expected to be introduced in Mortal Kombat 2. However, she eventually learned that Kahn killed her actual father, prompting her to team up with the warriors from Earthrealm so she could liberate her home of Edenia. Kitana also shares a close bond with Jade, so we can likely expect Rudolph and Gabrielle to share quite a bit of screen time, and it’s possible the sequel could explore her romantic tie to Liu Kang, played in this film series by Ludi Lin. Kitana was previously played by Talisa Soto in 1995’s Mortal Kombat and 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, but she was downgraded to a supporting character.
So now we have three new characters who’ve been cast for Mortal Kombat 2, but while Mortal Kombat’s ending teased that characters like Lewis Tan’s Cole Young and Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade would be back, the lineup of returning characters for the sequel hasn’t been unveiled yet. Behind the scenes, Simon McQuoid will once again be sitting in the director’s chair, Moon Knight’s Jeremy Slater is writing the script, and McQuoid is producing alongside James Wan, Michael Clear, Todd Garner and E. Bennet Walsh. Garner said in April that filming will begin in Australia (which is where the last movie shot) this June and conclude in September.
Keep checking in with CinemaBlend for more Mortal Kombat 2 castings and details about what the sequel has in store, and use your Max subscription to stream both its predecessor and the original live-action Mortal Kombat movie.