Mortal Kombat 1 creative director Ed Boon recently shared a sneak peek of the T-1000 Terminator's upcoming Fatality on social media, simultaneously teasing "future DLC." This reveal coincided with the announcement that Mortal Kombat 1 has surpassed five million copies sold, a significant jump from the previously reported four million, following the release of guest character Conan the Barbarian.
Boon tweeted a short video showcasing the T-1000's Fatality, a scene sure to resonate with Terminator 2 fans. The clip depicts the T-1000 using a wrecked truck to violently dispatch his opponent, echoing the iconic chase scene from Terminator 2.
His accompanying tweet, "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 the phrase could simply refer to the imminent arrival of the T-1000, many interpret it as a hint towards additional DLC characters beyond the current Khaos Reigns expansion.
The T-1000 is the final character slated for the Khaos Reigns expansion, following Cyrax, Sektor, Noob Saibot, Ghostface, and Conan the Barbarian. The possibility of a third DLC character pack, or Kombat Pack 3, has been a topic of much fan discussion, particularly given questions surrounding Mortal Kombat 1's sales performance.
However, Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company, has reaffirmed its commitment to the Mortal Kombat franchise. CEO David Zaslav stated in November that the company intends to double down on only four game titles, with Mortal Kombat being one of them.
Adding to the anticipation, Boon himself confirmed in September that NetherRealm had determined its next game three years prior, while also promising continued support for Mortal Kombat 1 "for a long time to come." Many fans speculate that this next game will be a third installment in the DC fighting game franchise, Injustice. While neither NetherRealm nor Warner Bros. has confirmed this, the previous Injustice titles, Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013) and Injustice 2 (2017), suggest a potential pattern. This pattern was disrupted by the release of Mortal Kombat 11 (2019) and the subsequent Mortal Kombat 1 (2023) soft reboot.
In a June 2023 interview with IGN, Boon alluded to several factors influencing this decision, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the team's transition to a newer version of the Unreal game engine (Unreal Engine 4 for Mortal Kombat 1, compared to Unreal Engine 3 for Mortal Kombat 11). He explicitly confirmed that the Injustice franchise remains a possibility for future development.
