JK Simmons will reprise his role as Omni-Man in Mortal Kombat 1, and Robert Kirkman could not be more pumped
'There's Mortal Kombat in the DNA of everything I've done'
As spotted by IGN, it's been confirmed at an interview at San Diego Comic-Con last week that JK Simmons—face of Spiderman's J. Jonah Jameson in multiple movies—will be reprising his role as Invincible's Omni-Man for Mortal Kombat 1's DLC.
Skybound's Gina Darling spoke to Walking Dead and Invincible creator Robert Kirkman as well as Ed Boon, creative director of NetherRealm Studios and co-creator of Mortal Kombat. Kirkman seemed psyched for the crossover, admitting: "I have been back-channelling trying to get to Ed Boon for a number of years, ever since you guys have started doing the DLC characters, [it's been]: 'I gotta get to Ed boon … I'll do anything, I'll pay them, I don't care.'"
For the uninitiated: Invincible's a gory take on superhero comics that lands somewhere between critique and genuine love-letter, ultra-violent without being overly cynical of the genre itself. Omni-Man the father of protagonist Mark Greyson, a gritty superman analogue and alien "Viltrumite" capable of out-punching just about anything in the galaxy.
Invincible received its own Amazon prime series in 2021, which Ed Boon cited as confirmation that they'd be including Omni-Man on the roster: "First episode, final scene, I was like: Okay, we got ourselves another character for Mortal Kombat."
Boon then proceeded to casually drop the news that JK Simmons, who voiced Omni-Man in the series, would be reprising his role for the game: "And then we had JK doing the audio for him … it's as authentic as it can be."
This was later confirmed on Twitter by Dominic Cianciolo, story and voiceover director for NetherRealm studios: "It’s been a thrill and a privilege to direct JK Simmons as Omni-Man in #MortalKombat1."
The feedback loop of inspiration between Mortal Kombat and Invincible has a long history according to Kirkman, who spoke some more about that first episode—which he's about to fully spoil, by the way, fair warning:
"When I did that sequence at the end of [the first episode] with Omni-Man just eviscerating the Guardians of the Globe: that's me trying to do my best Mortal Kombat fatalities," when discussing the "fatality meetings" he sat in on, Kirkman noted: "Everything is solid gold! I don't know what to say, I have no notes! The team they've put together in this game is phenomenal."
He also admitted that fans have Mortal Kombat to thank for a lot of his work: "There's Mortal Kombat in the DNA of everything I've done."
Mortal Kombat 1 itself is set to release in September. Omni-Man will be the first of the DLC roster, which includes The Boys' Homelander and Suicide Squad's Peacemaker, as well as Kombat characters Quan Chi, Ermac, and Takeda.