Mortal Kombat 1 Adds Jean

Apr 20, 2023

Mortal Kombat 1 announces that action star Jean-Claude Van Damme will join the roster of combatants available to enter the tournament.

Mortal Kombat 1 will include famed action star Jean-Claude Van Damme as a new character skin amongst its roster of fighters.

According to its official website, Mortal Kombat 1 will include a Johnny Cage character skin that turns him into Van Damme as part of its Kombat Pack at launch. In the MK series, Cage is, like Van Damme, a martial arts expert and Hollywood actor. The soft reboot of the series makes several changes to its iconic characters, with new versions of fan favorites like Cage, Kitana, Raiden and others. The title came as something of a surprise, as many fans expected a Mortal Kombat 12 after another soft reboot a few years prior.

Mortal Kombat's website describes the new title as part of a "reborn" universe. "The game will introduce a reborn Mortal Kombat Universe that has been created by the Fire God Liu Kang, featuring reimagined versions of iconic characters as they’ve never been seen before, along with a new fighting system, game modes, bone krushing finishing moves, and more," the website reads. In addition, Mortal Kombat 1 features a "brand-new cinematic narrative featuring unexpected twists on classic rivalries and original backstories for the wide-ranging cast of legendary fighters."

Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed a Mortal Kombat 12 in February 2023, set for release sometime that year. Over the next several months, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon teased fans with a potential update on the new entry on social media. In the last few weeks, Mortal Kombat continued to show brief images of a clock striking one, leading fans to speculate whether it would be a twelfth game, a remake of the first title, or an entire reboot.

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Mortal Kombat 1 comes a year after the series celebrated its 30th anniversary. For that reason, fans had previously theorized that Mortal Kombat might release a major title in 2022. Instead, Mortal Kombat released a commemorative video with a new logo depicting the iconic dragon and yin-yang symbol with images of the series' characters. During the video, Boon described his wonder at having created a franchise that spawned into multiple types of media. "This one arcade game that we made in 1992 has managed to spawn off all these different forms of media," he said.

Mortal Kombat 1 launches on Sept. 19, 2023, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Source: Mortal Kombat

Julia Anderson is the Lead Gaming News Editor for CBR. She is a life-long gamer and bookworm, spending most of her childhood either glued to a novel or the computer. As a teen, she found herself deeply embedded in the fanfiction community and discovered her talent for writing and editing. Since then, she's run her own freelance writing and editing business, Anderson Wordsmith. When she isn't reading or playing D&D, RPGs, or stealth-based games, Julia is usually found imitating old age: drinking herbal tea in her favorite chair, crocheting, and watching a Shakespeare or Jane Austen adaptation with her faithful dog, Ben.