Mortal Kombat 1: T-1000 Fatality Teased, Future DLC Hinted

Ed Boon, Mortal Kombat 1’s development chief, recently offered a sneak peek at the T-1000 Terminator’s upcoming Fatality via social media, alongside a tease hinting at future DLC. Coinciding with the release of the Conan the Barbarian guest character, Boon announced that Mortal Kombat 1 has surpassed five million copies sold, a significant increase from the previously reported four million. The tweeted clip showcases a T-1000 Fatality reminiscent of the iconic Terminator 2 chase scene, featuring the T-1000 driving a wrecked truck into his opponent.

Boon’s accompanying comment, “With Conan getting into player’s hands, we are excited to keep trucking forward with future DLC!”, sparked considerable speculation within the Mortal Kombat community. While this could simply refer to the T-1000’s imminent release, many hope it teases additional DLC characters beyond the current Khaos Reigns expansion. This expansion includes the T-1000, along with Cyrax, Sektor, Noob Saibot, Ghostface, and Conan the Barbarian. The question of a potential third DLC character set, or Kombat Pack 3, remains a topic of much discussion, particularly given Mortal Kombat 1’s sales success.

Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company, has expressed continued confidence in the Mortal Kombat franchise. CEO David Zaslav stated in November that the company plans to focus heavily on just four game titles, with Mortal Kombat being one of them. In September, Boon confirmed that NetherRealm had determined its next game three years prior, while promising continued support for Mortal Kombat 1 “for a long time to come.”

Many fans anticipate NetherRealm's next project to be a third installment in the DC fighting game franchise, Injustice. However, neither NetherRealm nor Warner Bros. has confirmed this. The first Injustice game, Injustice: Gods Among Us, launched in 2013, followed by Injustice 2 in 2017. After Mortal Kombat 11 in 2019, and the recent Mortal Kombat 1 in 2023, the studio’s pattern of alternating between the two franchises seems to have shifted.

In a June 2023 interview with IGN, Boon vaguely explained this decision, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the team's transition to a newer version of the Unreal game engine (Unreal Engine 4 for Mortal Kombat 1, compared to Unreal Engine 3 for Mortal Kombat 11) as contributing factors. He explicitly confirmed that the Injustice franchise remains a possibility for future development.