Mortal Kombat 2 will be hitting the theaters on May 8, 2026. A role call trailer recently dropped that strangely appeared to omit Cole Young, the movie original character and protagonist of the first film. Regardless, fans attending the theaters will have the option to eat popcorn out of Shao Kahn’s helmet.
Earlier today, the Mortal Kombat Movie X account released yet another small preview of what fans can expect on May 8. This time, they even went so far as to simulate a character select screen in the promo.
Oddly, there are only nine fighters present on the character select screen. There’s Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn, CJ Bloomfield as Baraka, Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks as Jax and Max Huang as Kung Lao.
Once again, it would seem that Cole Young is being completely omitted here despite being the protagonist of the first movie. Some fans theorized that Young will either be getting killed off this time around, or undergoing a transformation into Kenshi.
Of course, it’s also worth highlighting how Josh Lawson as Kano, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Damon Herriman as Quan Chi, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Ana Thu Nguyen as Queen Sindel and Joe Taslim as Noob Saibot are also missing from the character select screen.
After the character select screen is shown off in all its glory, we then cut to a brief look at the Liu Kang vs. Kung Lao battle. As Kung Lao was killed off in the first movie, it would seem that he has become a revenant and now fights for the forces of either Outworld or the Netherrealm.
Check it all out below:
Fighters selected. It’s about to go down! Get your tickets to Mortal Kombat II, in theaters and @IMAX May 8. #MortalKombatMovie #FilmedForIMAX pic.twitter.com/lTQ8WwOynH
— Mortal Kombat Movie (@MKMovie) April 26, 2026