‘Mortal Kombat II’ Had 2 Post-Credits Scenes Planned — Here’s Why They Were Cut

Mortal Kombat II has officially hit theaters and is already making noise with fans. The sequel continues the story from the 2021 reboot and brings back familiar fighters while also introducing new characters into the brutal tournament world.

The film debuted on May 8 and expands the universe with returning heroes and villains, including characters brought back from the dead. But one detail fans might not know is that the movie almost had post-credits scenes. That idea was already written, but none of it ever made it into the final cut.

This information comes from writer Jeremy Slater, who spoke with ComicBook about the film. He explained that multiple post-credits scenes were planned during development, but they were never filmed.

“I wrote a couple of different post-credit scenes, and we just never wound up filming any of them,” Slater said. He also explained that the reason came down to budget limits and planning issues during production. “This movie is huge and expansive and beautiful, and the special effects are awesome, but we didn’t have an unlimited budget,” he said. “We had to be very surgical and very targeted in what was actually going on in front of the cameras.”

Slater added that the team had to be careful about what they spent money on, and post-credits scenes were not a priority compared to the main story.

“They just didn’t justify the money that we were going to spend on them,” he said. “And also the ideas of what 3 was actually going to be about kept changing.”

That changing direction became another major reason the scenes were scrapped. The writer explained that the storyline for a potential third film was still not locked in during production of Mortal Kombat II. Because of that, they did not want to set up future events that might not match later plans.

“We kind of got a little worried that we were definitely planting a flag and saying, ‘this is the plot for 3,’” Slater said. “So we took a step back and made sure we were telling the right story.”

He also noted that the current script for the next movie is very different from earlier ideas.

“If we had had to decide two years ago what the plot of 3 is, it was something very different from the script that I’m writing right now,” he explained. “We would have probably made one of those promises that then would have boxed us into a corner.”

Even without post-credits scenes, Mortal Kombat II still packs in a lot of action. The movie brings in fan-favorite characters like Johnny Cage, Kitana, and Quan Chi, while continuing the fight for Earthrealm’s survival. The story centers on a new version of the deadly Mortal Kombat tournament, where warriors must battle against Shao Kahn, a powerful ruler threatening to take over everything.

The film focuses heavily on Johnny Cage, who is pulled into the fight even though he does not fully want to be part of it at first. From there, the story grows into a larger battle involving Earthrealm’s defenders and their struggle against total destruction.

Early audience reactions have been strong, with the film earning a 90% audience score so far. According to ComicBook’s interview with Jeremy Slater, the focus during production was always on making the main story work first, even if that meant cutting extra scenes like post-credit setups.

In the end, the decision was simple. The creative team wanted to make sure the movie stood on its own without locking future films into plans too early.

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