With nearly 30 years of video game source material to draw from, Mortal Kombat is ripe to be adapted and explored in more than a single feature film, and screenwriter Greg Russo planned for a full trilogy.

Working on the screenplay for five years, Russo had to balance introducing new audiences to the video game's expansive fantasy world while delivering on fan expectation. This meant keeping the first film tight, with Russo planning to follow up on a wider story should the movie prove successful enough to warrant sequels or spinoffs.

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"When I wrote it, I conceived it as a trilogy; I didn't even tell the people I was working with I was doing it as a trilogy. Just as a writer, you never want to paint yourself into a corner or shutdown where your storyline could go," Russo tells CBR. "When I was writing the first film, I was always, in the back of my mind, outlining two more so I always knew where things could go. I would love to come back and explore, there's just so much of the mythology that we didn't have the time to get into [but] two hours is the right length for a first film. But there's more, there's the Shaolin monks, there's the special forces, there's all these spinoffs that you could see."

Producer Todd Garner expressed franchise hopes for the video game property, including potential spinoffs further expanding on different fan-favorite characters' adventures while holding out on Johnny Cage to appear in future films. As a lifelong fan of the video games, Russo hopes to get to explore some of his personal favorite realms in full should he return for a sequel.

"I wanted to make sure there were places we could go and certain realms, we barely touched them. For example, Edenia is a realm that I love and I love all the characters there -- Kitana, Sindel, all these great characters -- and as much I wanted to put them in the movie, the story said to wait a minute because that deserves its own time to shine so don't jam these characters in there when it's not right," Russo continued. "And when it came to character selection, it's all about doing the characters a service. But I would love to write more and love to explore more."

Directed by Simon McQuoid and produced by James Wan, Mortal Kombat stars Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jackson "Jax" Bridges, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han and Sub-Zero, Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion, Max Huang as Kung Lao, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Matilda Kimber as Emily Young and Laura Brent as Allison Young. The film arrives in theaters and on HBO Max April 23.

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