Brad Curran at Kung Fu Kingdom gained an ample opportunity to discuss some career details with stunt coordinator Garrett Warren (Here Comes The Boom, Logan, Alita: Battle Angel). One of those details includes directing Mortal Kombat Legacy Season 3, following the success of the first two seasons from Warner Bros. and Machima.
“I loved working on ‘Mortal Kombat‘.” said Warren. “It was a real passion project for the director, Kevin Tancharoen, and even though it didn’t have a huge budget, he had this really grand vision for what he wanted the show to be, and he put every idea in his head into it.”
At the 4th Annual Streamy Awards, second season won Best Choreography for Warren and fight choreographer Larnell Stovall, the latter who was also a hefty proponent on the feature film’s development since collaborating with Tancharoen on the 7-minute 2010 proof of concept, Mortal Kombat Rebirth.
Posterity of the series was announced a few years into the series with season three slated to rollout through Blue Ribbon Content which eyed the show among a raft of other digital series at the time. Filming began in early 2015 after weeks of photos from actors Casper Van Dien and Mark Dacascos teasing their involvement.
Based on the classic game franchise from Netherealm (formerly Midway), Van Dien succeeded the role of cocky action star Johnny Cage in season two following Matt Mullins’ season one performance, and with Dacascos debuting the role of shaolin monk, Kung Lao, opposite actor Brian Tee as revenge-driven ex-monk, Liu Kang.
“Being a director of something, you kind of feel like it’s your kid, in a way.” Warren adds. “We were able to do some amazing things in season three with the fights and the storyline, and to this day, I’m heartbroken that it’s never been released.”
The third season – Mortal Kombat X: Generations according to IMDb as of this write-up – also saw the possible return of Mortal Kombat (1995) actor Cary Tagawa as Shang Tsung in addition to Van Dien and Dacascos. Others the show teased included new additions like Ron Yuan replacing Ian Anthony Dale as Scorpion, Lewis Tan as Kung Jin, Ray Park as Erron Black, Hayley Lu Richardson as Cassie Cage, and even actor Jamal Duff and actress Jade Quon as the tag team duo, Ferra/Torr.
Curran went on to inquire about why it was that the third season was never released.
“I can say this – between Warner Bros and NetherRealm Studios, there were certain things that each of them wanted from it, or to use it for.” says Warren. “And that’s basically why it hasn’t been released, because each of those entities weren’t really able to settle on what was going to happen with it and for what purpose. Ultimately, for it to be released, fans of Mortal Kombat really need to reach out and say, ‘Hey, we’d like to see Mortal Kombat season three.'”
Tancharoen (Fame) was the person to stalk online via Twitter and Instagram after making headway with Rebirth, drawing hope for a film after 2010. Since leaving Mortal Kombat altogether in 2013, the fan service kept hope alive for more Legacy with season 2 bookending with a brazen cliffhanger that saw Dacascos’ Kung Lao and Tee’s Liu Kang standing face to face at the precipice of what would have probably been an epic fight scene.
Alas, Generations never came to pass and it wasn’t until 2015 when James Wan came aboard as producer for what would become just the start of a long, arduous wait for a feature film from the studio. To date, Simon McQuoid is still on board to direct the film supposedly this summer in Australia with talk of actor Joel Edgerton (Warrior, Red Sparrow) reportedly circling the role of Kano according to the rumor mill in recent memory.
Machinima is no longer around after Warner Bros. folded the company into WarnerMedia’s Otter Media shingle with up to 81 jobs lost as of February, and nearly all of its videos completely vanished from its YouTube channel. Machinima launched in 2000 and since grew as a shining beacon for online game culture, and was even home to progamming such as Mortal Kombat Legacy, and Joey Ansah’s Street Fighter: Assassins Fist.
It’s understandable if fans are probably over the series by now seeing as its been so long, but the fact is the show is…well, we now know that it exists and it’s being contained someplace thanks in large part to studio politics. Fact is the fans wanted this out at some point and considering the base is still alive and well, even as new games arise, it’d be nice to have Generations to hold us over until McQuoid and Wan get the feature film engine running. That’s just my view, I guess.
Have your say in the comments below and let us know if you wish to see Mortal Kombat X: Generations released online for all to watch!
Mortal Kombat Legacy Season 2 – Wrap photo (@KTANCH/Instagram)
