Mortal Kombat 2 Needs More Flashbacks (To Explain A Scorpion Mystery)
If Mortal Kombat 2 gets made, it will need to include some more flashback scenes to answer a lingering Scorpion question from the first movie. A sequel to Mortal Kombat hasn’t been confirmed yet, but given the franchise’s immense popularity and the 2021 film’s pandemic era success, it seems like only a matter of time before MK 2 is announced by Warner Bros. But when that finally happens, the next movie will need at least a couple more flashback scenes to explain a big mystery involving Scorpion and Cole Young.
Mortal Kombat begins with an extensive flashback sequence showing the origins of the rivalry between Scorpion and Sub-Zero. In those scenes, Scorpion, his wife, and his firstborn child were all killed by Sub-Zero and his Lin Kuei assassins, setting the stage for their eventual rematch centuries later. At the end of the flashback, it’s revealed that Scorpion’s newborn baby survived the attack. The infant is rescued by Raiden, thereby continuing the bloodline that eventually begets Cole Young.
Unfortunately, Mortal Kombat doesn’t actually show what happens to Scorpion’s child after they’re rescued by Raiden. They obviously survive, as they must for Cole to have been born, but they also would have had to go into hiding or risk the further fury of Sub-Zero and the Lin Kuei. Cole’s connection to Scorpion was a key part of Mortal Kombat’s story, but the actual backstory of his bloodline wasn’t fleshed out much beyond the Scorpion/Sub-Zero rivalry. If Mortal Kombat 2 includes more flashbacks showing what happened to Scorpion’s child, it could help build out Cole Young’s character in new and interesting ways.
Including flashbacks to that point in the MK story would also help develop Raiden. In the first movie, he comes off as a hard and brutal character, quick to kick Cole out of his temple when he fails to trigger his Arcana powers. That characterization seems somewhat at odds with the Raiden who went out of his way to save a single baby all in the interest of some prophecy. Maybe over the centuries, as Earthrealm kept losing the Mortal Kombat tournaments, he started to lose faith.
It’s also fair to assume that both Scorpion and Sub-Zero will continue to play major roles in Mortal Kombat 2 if it gets made. The Lin Kuei is only mentioned by name in the first movie, and additional flashbacks could help show how they came to be in the service of Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, and the rest of Outworld, as well as the origins of their feud with Scorpion’s Shirai Ryu clan. Mortal Kombat’s flashbacks were some of its best scenes, and Mortal Kombat 2 should continue that trend.