Would MK work as a TV series?

B

brave1

New member
Let's be honest, Mortal Kombat: Conquest was really like Power Rangers for adults in terms of target audience and production quality.

I think we could agree that in order for a good live action of MK to work, you need:

1. A good cast
2. Decent action scenes/stunts
3. Top special effects (CGI, makeup/prosthetics, puppetry)
4. Engaging drama
5. Consistant writing

The first two MK films by New Line Cinema exceeded in stunts and special effects (at time of production 1995-98)
Legacy did not have much in terms of well-choreographed action scenes, but was definitely more character-driven as shown in the Scorpion/Sub-Zero episodes where we see the pre-Scorpion Hanzo.

But with contemporary TV productions such as Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Agents of SHIELD, Arrow etc, would MK work in the same vein in terms of getting a "complete package"?

If I were a director, my dream production crew for an MK TV show would be:

WRITER: Steven DeKnight (Smalville, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Spartacus, Daredevil

SPECIAL EFFECTS: Jim Henson Co. (Farscape.)

STUNTS: Allan Poppleton (Spartacus: Blood and Sand). The fight scenes in the Spartacus series would probably be the closest thing to MK-level violence ever done on the small screen - and the actors involved weren't even professional martial artists.

STUDIO: Either AMC, Starz or HBO
 
Idk, Conquest did it the right way at times. It felt more like Mortal Kombat with a continued story as a lot of major characters actually died along the way, which was cool. It also did an excellent job at developing original characters (unlike Legacy). The fights actually felt more fluid and action-packed without the stereotypical slow-mo strikes presented in movies today. However, it did feel like a "Villain of the Day" story. However, I wouldn't want a MK Story where (for the 100th time) they are fighting to stop Shao Kahn in the 10th Tournament.

If they could do something sort of similar to Conquest without the Villain of the Day vibe (and more accurate character origins), I'd be up for it. Other than that, they could just do a movie or keep it gaming.
 
I would still like a new animated series. A series made for adults and not a cartoon on Saturday mornings made to sell toys like Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm was. A new MK animated series would work on Toonami since both Toonami and MK are own by Time Warner and Toonami is on Saturday nights at Midnight. Toonami can allow stuff like Hellsing: Ultimate which is just as violent and bloody as current MK, if not more.
 
mk tv series has been already shot. and I cannot understand how it has so high rating. cage, blade...they have nothing in common with game characters. MK tv series is a big mistake imho
 
Guyver Spawn said:
I would still like a new animated series. A series made for adults and not a cartoon on Saturday mornings made to sell toys like Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm was. A new MK animated series would work on Toonami since both Toonami and MK are own by Time Warner and Toonami is on Saturday nights at Midnight. Toonami can allow stuff like Hellsing: Ultimate which is just as violent and bloody as current MK, if not more.
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I was thinking along the same lines.
 
I frelling like the sound of that. Farscape all day.

MK would work well as a tv series. Its been done multiple times and even in the form of a cartoon. If I were behind it, I would take the medium of a tv series to my full advantage. With that much to work with, I'd make sure as many of the beloved Trilogy characters are fully fleshed out respectively. With a tv show, you'd have enough time to spend with all the many different characters that you wouldn't have the time or space to do in a movie.

MK would also make an awesome trilogy of movies like Star Wars or The Dark Knight.

I've planned to write out my own fantasy MK movie trilogy once. I figured MK1 is like A New Hope. MKII would be the surpassing sequel, like The Dark Knight. And MKIII would be the tragic, bitter-sweet, conclusion. Some characters would have to get the Darth Maul treatment to balance the movies. But I should keep the details to myself until I'm finished and ready to share.
 
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No, Mk as animated can only be a failure. Just look at Defenders of the Realm or The Journey Begins. What anime actually shows combat for adults?
You can't make Dragon Ball long fights in a Mortal Kombat series.

I would make a tv series starting from 10.000 years ago, in the last years of the House of Jerrod, with teenagers Kitana, Jade, Taven, Daegon, Rain and Tanya witnessing the Outworld invasion and the subsequent war (which should last for a few years) first hand, ending with Kahn's victory after Daegon murders his parents who were the last line of defense and Rain betrays the last bastion of the Resistance. Kitana shouldn't be an infant, but a beautiful teenager princess (14 to 16 years old by the end of the war). Many characters could be involved in the Edenian War, just like in Homer's Iliad with the Greeks besieging Troy and some Gods working with the trojans (in this case with Raiden and Fujin, and even a pre-reveal Shinnok aiding Edenia) and other deities aiding the greeks (in this case Quan Chi aiding Shao Kahn). Drahmin, Reiko, Ashrah, Kintaro, Hotaru, Havik, the cryomancers and others who could have been alive at that point should be involved. It would end with Ermac being formed and Sindel agreeing to the marriage union.

Immediately after that, Shinnok's first attack on Earthrealm should be swiftly shown. The event remains in history as the Great Flood in many mythologies (actually thought by historians to have happened 8.000 years BC, meaning 10.000 years ago). They could show Reiko and Fujin fighting besides Shinnok and Raiden and a conclusion to the cryomancers' demise. It would give an epic feeling to Mortal Kombat and Raiden's journey. The ravaged Earth shown from space with few survivors in the indestructible Temples of Argus and Delia on Earth would be the episode's shocking conclusion. The saurians are rewarded by the Elder Gods with Zaterra and leave Earth forever, their dead bodies looking humanly cloaked, so no evidence of their existence is ever uncovered.

Then, the series could jump in time and have many episodes during the House of Kahn (about 700-1000 years ago). With Shang Tsung joining the political intrigue at Shao Kan's court after turning his back on Earthrealm and being taught to steal souls, he has to compete for the favour of the Emperor with the other cunning leaders: Kitana, Jade, Reiko, Rain, Tanya (Qali), Mileena, Baraka, Ermac, Skarlet, Sheeva, Kotal Kahn and others. Just imagine every episode of these guys making alliances, stabbing each other in the back and tides turning in favour of one or the other. They shouldn't just be presented as lying around Kahn's imperial palace, but as each having their own dominion or parts of the conquered empire to rule as governors or gods in Kahn's name. I can imagine Ermac in a scene like Xerxes from 300 Rise of an empire looking from above to his subjects who should be as numerous as billions in a dominion of former Edenia or another conquered realm similar to our world's India or Persia. Ermac's daily life with him never eating and meditating in the darkness as slaves build Kahn's Ancient Temples and pyramides could be shown in one episode from the eyes of a personal girl slave who tries to get through to his soul and we could be given a glimpse of an underlying compassion of his. Episodes like this could focus on the others too, this is just an example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn83JxEjZVg

All from Kahn's court should be great leaders, not just assassins. And finally, we could see the conquering of Zaterra by the Outworlders and the Empire of Daegon (the ancient God Dagon) in Earthrealm. Shang Tsung said to the Reptile in MK Conquest: "I was by Shao Kahn's side when he conquered your realm!"

After this tv series concludes, one could very well go and watch MK Conquest and see the adventures of Kung Lao and his friends noticing that they're set into a much bigger context, with Shao Kahn much more experienced and powerful.

Another idea came to me after seeing the feudal Japan skins. What if the characters involved (Kitana, Kenshi, Shinnok) had a showdown confrontation in Feudal Japan? Maybe with Shinnok briefly escaping the Netherrealm and an alliance being formed to engage him in a small war, with human real leaders and Japanese shogun armies fighting alongside Kenshi and Kitana?


That's just my take on it :D
 
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I think it could work, IF handled by the right people who actually care about the series and its content. If made into a tv series that was going to be shown on a major network it would have to interest new fans of the series as well as fans of the original content. If that was the case you dont want to make too many changes to characters/premise etc as you'll lose most of the original content fans from the get go, not all of them, but a large portion.

I would keep the modern day tournament plot. With earthrealm needing to win this upcoming tournament to save the realm. Initally, with Johnny Cage as main protagonist, reason for this being he is the one who is pretty clueless about the true nature of the tournament and we can utilize him as a way of telling the audience what is happening. Give the guys good back story too, yeah its about fighting and kicking ass but we should at least care about the characters and what a lose could mean for them. Another problem is making the tournament actually make sense in terms of how a real tournament is set up. Otherwise the audience are gonna have no idea how anything works and why a defeat is a big deal. Between tournament fights is when you have character build up, character arcs, and behind the tounament politics. By episode 2-3 we should have a good base on which characters we want to prevail.

Season 1 could be the tournament itself. Then with season 2 being the earthrealm invasion storyline they had in mk9, obviously polished up. No denying it would be challenging but yes i do think it could happen.
 
jnevin90 said:
I think it could work, IF handled by the right people who actually care about the series and its content. If made into a tv series that was going to be shown on a major network it would have to interest new fans of the series as well as fans of the original content. If that was the case you dont want to make too many changes to characters/premise etc as you'll lose most of the original content fans from the get go, not all of them, but a large portion.

I would keep the modern day tournament plot. With earthrealm needing to win this upcoming tournament to save the realm. Initally, with Johnny Cage as main protagonist, reason for this being he is the one who is pretty clueless about the true nature of the tournament and we can utilize him as a way of telling the audience what is happening. Give the guys good back story too, yeah its about fighting and kicking ass but we should at least care about the characters and what a lose could mean for them. Another problem is making the tournament actually make sense in terms of how a real tournament is set up. Otherwise the audience are gonna have no idea how anything works and why a defeat is a big deal. Between tournament fights is when you have character build up, character arcs, and behind the tounament politics. By episode 2-3 we should have a good base on which characters we want to prevail.

Season 1 could be the tournament itself. Then with season 2 being the earthrealm invasion storyline they had in mk9, obviously polished up. No denying it would be challenging but yes i do think it could happen.
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Aren't you tired of seeing the same thing all over again?

The first games- the tournament
The movies- the tournament
The Journey Begins- the tournament
Shaolin Monks- a retelling of the fu***** tournament
MK Legacy- the tournament (wwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)
MK reboot- noooooooooooooo fu***** waaaay, but of course: again scenes with Johnny Cage, Sonya and Liu Kang from THE TOURNAMENT.

It made me hate these characters, which were actually very good characters and favourites of mine 20 years ago.
 
mattteo said:
Aren't you tired of seeing the same thing all over again?

The first games- the tournament
The movies- the tournament
The Journey Begins- the tournament
Shaolin Monks- a retelling of the fu***** tournament
MK Legacy- the tournament (wwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)
MK reboot- noooooooooooooo fu***** waaaay, but of course: again scenes with Johnny Cage, Sonya and Liu Kang from THE TOURNAMENT.

It made me hate these characters, which were actually very good characters and favourites of mine 20 years ago.
Click to expand...

Rephrase that:
The First Games- 10th Tournament, Outworld Tournament and an Invasion.
The Movies - 10th Tournament and an Invasion
Journey Begins - 10th Tournament and Origin Story
Shaolin Monks - Outworld Tournament filled with MK1 backstory
MKLegacy - Origin Story & 10th Tournament
MK Defenders of the Realms - Outworld Invasion
Requested Order of Events - 10th Tournament, Origin Story, and Invasion
Plans for the Movie - 10th Tournament, Origin Stories, and Invasion
Probable MKL Season 3 Story - Outworld Invasion
MK Comics - 10th Tournament, Origin Story, & Outworld Invasion
MKSF & MKMSZ - Origin Stories ending with invite to the 10th Tournament
MK Conquest - Origin Stories


One defining Factor in all of these is that most of the storylines in Mortal Kombat deal with Origin Stories, the 10th Tournament, or the Outworld Invasion. One type of story is barely touched upon: The Outworld Tournament. Like seriously, why do they love skipping that Storyline so much? Shaolin Monks allowed us to play that Story, but over 60% of that game was heavily based on telling us about what happened at the Tenth Tournament. Then it was a false Tournament made by Shang Tsung in order to lure them into the coliseum, which is at the end of the game. Heck, even MK9 skimmed over the Story in favor of setting up backstory for the Invasion Storyline. The Order of Events that I want to see is:

Season 1: Outworld Tournament (Beginning to End like a Stand-alone Story; include some of the new characters who've been alive at the time)
Season 2: A Direct Back-to-Back Arc of Outworld and Netherealm's Invasion (Change up the deaths a bit by giving some deaths to other characters)
Season 3: Havik & Reiko Story Arc (Introduce the Kids)
Season 4: The next 33 Issues of the MKX Comic Book (More Backstory Leading into...)
Season 6: Events of MKX

And either end it there or continue the Story along with the games. But for the love of God, unless they plan to keep Bi-Han Alive or someone else becomes the Champion, please...no more of the 10th Tournament. Unless they do like the first episode of Conquest did (Kung Lao vs Shang Tsung in a 5-10 min fight).
 
If this will ever done, i want 3 seasons:
1) pre MK1 story (Great Kung Lao) and all that stuff
2) Tournament story (yes, it needs to happen)
3) Armageddon

Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Raiden, Netherealm guys and outworlders should be played by the same guys during all 3 seasons, while other ators should be different between season 1 and others (humans)

each season should be 15 episodes (1 per week) and 1 hour without commercials
 
Theres enough kontent in the MK Universe to be spread out through atleast 8 seasons...
 
vetalfox said:
If this will ever done, i want 3 seasons:
1) pre MK1 story (Great Kung Lao) and all that stuff
2) Tournament story (yes, it needs to happen)
3) Armageddon

Shang Tsung, Scorpion, Raiden, Netherealm guys and outworlders should be played by the same guys during all 3 seasons, while other ators should be different between season 1 and others (humans)

each season should be 15 episodes (1 per week) and 1 hour without commercials
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1 hour without commercials would never happen. If its an hour show, then you are looking at atleast 10-15 mins of commercials so the running time per episode would be 45-50 mins...
 
I find most of those kind of TV series so cheap and boring. They always cast cheap, bad acting and ugly actors/actresses - like they did on that horrid thing that was Legacy. I'd rather have a big movie - production and cast something like X-Men.

Do you guys think if done right (with right cast, story, etc) MK as a movie can be big?
 
mattteo said:
Aren't you tired of seeing the same thing all over again?

The first games- the tournament
The movies- the tournament
The Journey Begins- the tournament
Shaolin Monks- a retelling of the fu***** tournament
MK Legacy- the tournament (wwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)
MK reboot- noooooooooooooo fu***** waaaay, but of course: again scenes with Johnny Cage, Sonya and Liu Kang from THE TOURNAMENT.

It made me hate these characters, which were actually very good characters and favourites of mine 20 years ago.
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I think the reason im still ok with the idea of this being the main plot is that in my opinion we havent seen a good live action portrayel of this story yet. No denying nether realm have used this story as a crutch for coming up with anything new in the past but i still think a decent version could be done. The tournament is only a plot basis, the story telling of the character dynamics is something im much more interested in seeing. Plus, what characters are actually used in the tv series would be completely flexible, i used johnny cage as an example because i thought he would be a good character to use for story exploitation to the audience.

You could put a spin on it. What if Earth realm loses the tournament? What if Shao Kahn defeats Liu Kang and then is allowed to conquer earthrealm? season 2 could instead focus on an uprising in Edenia lead by Rain and his half brother Daegon with Raiden and Fujin leading the remaining earthrealm warriors to Edenia undercover from shao kahns armies before joining them to take on Shao Kahn again. You could also introduce the newer characters like Kotal Kahn and Erron Black this way as they could be one of the few allies they have in outworld.
 
jnevin90 said:
I think the reason im still ok with the idea of this being the main plot is that in my opinion we havent seen a good live action portrayel of this story yet. No denying nether realm have used this story as a crutch for coming up with anything new in the past but i still think a decent version could be done. The tournament is only a plot basis, the story telling of the character dynamics is something im much more interested in seeing. Plus, what characters are actually used in the tv series would be completely flexible, i used johnny cage as an example because i thought he would be a good character to use for story exploitation to the audience.

You could put a spin on it. What if Earth realm loses the tournament? What if Shao Kahn defeats Liu Kang and then is allowed to conquer earthrealm? season 2 could instead focus on an uprising in Edenia lead by Rain and his half brother Daegon with Raiden and Fujin leading the remaining earthrealm warriors to Edenia undercover from shao kahns armies before joining them to take on Shao Kahn again. You could also introduce the newer characters like Kotal Kahn and Erron Black this way as they could be one of the few allies they have in outworld.
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That would make a great tv series, but it could work without the tournament too.

Basically, if we have that plot in Outworld, with the political struggle between the players you listed, it would be an expanding of the MK universe.
And there are soo many stories to tell, from Outworld to Edenia, from Seido to Chaosrealm and, of course, deep into the Netherrealm among demons who have built themselves a society, from the stories in Deadly Aliance to the ones in Deception and to the great great past of Armageddon when Gods lived among humans and protected the cradle of life, Edenia, from wars with Saho Kahn.

It doesn't even have to tie into the tournament or the Earthrealm characters to be good
 
mattteo said:
That would make a great tv series, but it could work without the tournament too.

Basically, if we have that plot in Outworld, with the political struggle between the players you listed, it would be an expanding of the MK universe.
And there are soo many stories to tell, from Outworld to Edenia, from Seido to Chaosrealm and, of course, deep into the Netherrealm among demons who have built themselves a society, from the stories in Deadly Aliance to the ones in Deception and to the great great past of Armageddon when Gods lived among humans and protected the cradle of life, Edenia, from wars with Saho Kahn.

It doesn't even have to tie into the tournament or the Earthrealm characters to be good
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Aye, so you could have the series start in Outworld, with the earthrealm being conquered long ago. I'd be happy to see that. You're right, there is so much lore in the MK universe that you could take the story many different places and still be true to the subject matter.
 
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