Mortal Kombat 1 in Development Longer Than Any Previous Title, Doesn’t Continue MK11’s Story

Mortal Kombat 1 is official and made a big impact with its reveal trailer, which showcased returning characters like Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Scorpion, Kitana, Kung Lao and Shang Tsung. Of course, given that it takes place in a “reborn” universe following the events of Mortal Kombat 11, there’s the question of how much it ties into the previous game.

In a new Kommunity Chat stream on Twitch (transcription via TweakTown), co-creator Ed Boon discussed why the team calls it Mortal Kombat 1, describing it as “really at the beginning of a universe, in a sense. It is not a continuation of the Mortal Kombat 11 story. Again, the characters have completely different roles in this new timeline, and we really wanted to kind of punctuate that, and emphasize that with our title.

“This is Mortal Kombat 1. It’s a brand new beginning, you’re going to be seeing these characters re-introduced with new roles and new relationships with each other. That’s the main catalyst for calling it Mortal Kombat 1.”

It’s also worth noting how Liu Kang is on the cover. Scorpion previously headlines the covers for Mortal Kombat X and 11 and shared space with Sub-Zero on MK9’s cover. Boon acknowledges that “Scorpion and Sub-Zero have always sort of been the poster children for Mortal Kombat.” However, since this is a universe created by Liu Kang, “We really wanted to mix things up – the color scheme in our key art is different. Liu Kang… this is the first time we’ve really featured him up in front.

“Again, this is all about a whole new Mortal Kombat, and I think that Liu Kang is a great face to put up front to punctuate that this is a brand new Mortal Kombat and not just a continuation of the last one.”

Boon also said plenty of new information is coming, from revealing the new game modes, mechanics and look to the story. “We’ve been working on this game longer than any other Mortal Kombat game. It’s going to show. You’re going to be excited to see the new stuff that we can’t wait to tell you about.”

Mortal Kombat 1 is out on September 19th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. Premium and Kollector’s Edition owners get access to it five days earlier, and also the Kombat Pack, which includes six playable and five Kameo characters post-launch. Details for the latter have seemingly leaked, courtesy of Amazon Italy – check it out here.