Filmmaker Simon McQuoid makes his feature film directorial debut with Mortal Kombat, on which he also serves as producer. Nearly 25 years after the franchise was last seen on the big screen in 1997's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, McQuoid set out with a fresh interpretation of the classic fighting game series while aiming to stay as true as possible to the original source material.

In a roundtable interview attended by CBR, McQuoid revealed what drew him to the project, underscored the importance of honoring the franchise and  explained what changes to the lore he was willing to make.

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As the conversation opened, McQuoid reflected that adding special effects to the fight sequences involved him working closely with the visual effects department, costuming, fight choreographer and stunt team to ensure everything looked good in the final film. This required McQuoid to make sure everyone in the production was on the same page, noting, "The final product gets better when we all communicate well." This entailed the different teams observing early choreography and filming and deciding to add more of a visual effects flair to the final cut to give that added impact.

While McQuoid avoided specific references to films that inspired Mortal Kombat, he did explain that the cinema he has watched and admired his whole life informed the movie. McQuoid is particularly drawn to Korean films, complimenting the "great balance in brutality, horror and violence." He also noted they are generally "beautifully crafted" in their smart, well-thought out delivery, which juxtaposes the on-screen carnage.

In regards to Mortal Kombat specifically, McQuoid admitted he thought constantly during production about fan expectation for the franchise's characters and story, seeking to do them justice in his adaptation. "These are revered characters, whether it's Sonja, Jax or Kung Lao. I kept saying there's a big percentage of people that are only coming to see Kung Lao or their favorite is Sonja," McQuoid said. "To manage the characters within this ensemble cast was a big deal and I tried as best as I could to make sure each character had a reason to exist and they didn't feel underdone or overdone; it was really hard. It's a very dense, multi-layered film with a lot of preconceived notions from super-fans who expect [this and that]. There's a lot to consider!"

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McQuoid noted that attention to detail was important throughout production and something he really enjoyed, remarking, "How we bring nobility and elevate each character to be the best they've ever been. It was amazingly fun, I felt very privileged to be able to do it so I didn't want to fuck it up."

With that in mind, CBR asked McQuoid he wanted to bring himself to the characters and mythos as he breathed new life into the franchise on the big screen. "Really what connected me to doing this wasn't because I was Mortal Kombat fan -- I wouldn't consider myself that -- what I love doing is being able to bring a sort of authenticity, honesty and a rich layer of complexity to characters like this," McQuoid explained. "To be able to bring characters in this world and sit them in this authentic unreal, yet real feeling, to see the fundamental ingredients in the DNA of Mortal Kombat and the violence of it -- I'm not a particularly violent person, I'm a lover not a fighter -- but what that important part of the DNA is it allowed us to be really authentic with the fights so you could believe them more. We certainly embrace and take the fatalities and do them justice but throughout it, what it mean, we didn't have to hold back."

"When I dug deeper, deeper and deeper, the thing that this is about is it comes from blood and what blood means. It's about bloodlines and blood means our connection and family... it just also happens to mean blood spraying everywhere which fits right in with Mortal Kombat," McQuoid continued. "I just wanted to take that idea and add a few facets to it to bring that out and have that mean a bit more and that what the story is really about aside from the discovery of all the Mortal Kombat lore."

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"I tried to take myself to Mortal Kombat University and learn everything, but there's so much stuff there. I tried my best but just surrounded myself with really clever people who knew this stuff," McQuoid admitted. "We shouldn't be changing fundamentals; we can add a bit to help amplify lore, but I was very, very nervous and very careful about anything we might change. There are a couple things that did change a little bit. One that we've seen is Sub-Zero taking Jax's arms. We know that was Ermac [in the games] and there's even been slightly different iterations of that through the years. In this particular story, I needed to inform Sub-Zero as much as I needed to inform how Jax loses them, so I really thought about it a lot. But there are certain things we simply don't change...we're just trying to be as truthful as we could."

McQuoid credited both New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. for recognizing the film should honor the expectation for violence in order to be faithful to the material and understood this would likely result in an R rating. For McQuoid, it was more about bringing an epic scope and staying true to the source material, the graphic content was just an extension of it. While McQuoid stopped short of confirming the iconic techno theme from the 1995 film would appear, he acknowledged that music was an important part of the filmmaking process when working with composer Benjamin Wallfisch.

Directed by Simon McQuoid and produced by James Wan and Todd Garner, 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 16.

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