Mortal Kombat 12 is confirmed to be coming in 2023. A small teaser dropped, and there's sure to be a trailer coming any day now! While we wait, let's rank all the Mortal Kombat characters!

Check out our Netherkast Discord for a large and lively community to discuss Mortal Kombat with:
https://discord.gg/uZqFMpy

Our channel was established in 2014, and we have over 100 podcast episodes and 600+ videos. We are extremely passionate about Mortal Kombat, and we've been fans for decades. If you're new to our content, consider subscribing!

Follow us on Twitter:
Cyborg: https://twitter.com/netherkast
Razor: https://twitter.com/RazorsEdge701
Shad: https://twitter.com/LinKuei_Shad
Temp: https://twitter.com/Temp_NK

Mortal Kombat is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but when that idea fell through, a science fantasy-themed fighting game was created instead. Still, the developers paid homage to him with Johnny Cage (one of the main characters in the franchise), a fictional film star whose personal style resembles Van Damme's.

The original game spawned many sequels with several action-adventure games. It also has a comic book series and a card game. Movie producer Larry Kasanoff licensed the rights to the game in the early 1990s and produced the first movie of the franchise. Kasanoff also produced the second movie, animated TV series, live-action TV series movies, the first one million platinum-selling album, and a live-action tour. Mortal Kombat has become the best-selling fighting game franchise worldwide and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

The series has a reputation for high levels of graphic fighting, including, most notably, its fatalities, which are finishing moves on defeated opponents instead of knocking them out. Controversies surrounding Mortal Kombat, in part, led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) video game rating system. Early games in this series were also noted for their realistic digitized sprites and an extensive use of palette swapping to create new characters. Following Midway's bankruptcy, the MK development team was acquired by Warner Bros. Entertainment and reestablished as NetherRealm Studios.