Mortal Kombat II's Newest Trailer Has Me Convinced One Character's Fatality Will Happen Early On

Mortal Kombat II is among the many upcoming video games to look forward to on the 2026 movies schedule, with the long-awaited sequel coming five years after the beloved franchise was rebooted for the big screen. The first Mortal Kombat II trailer dropped last July, when the movie was still be slated to released in October, and now the latest trailer has arrived three months ahead of its current release slot. Well, after watching the new preview, I’m convinced that Lewis Tan’s Cole Young will be one of the sequel’s early fatalities.

Full disclosure, I know very little about the Mortal Kombat franchise, so I can’t speak to which characters are likely to be killed off in Mortal Kombat II based off the lore of the video games. What I do know is that Cole Young was created specifically for 2021’s Mortal Kombat as an everyman character who gets drawn into the conflict between the denizens of Earthrealm and Outworld. When we last saw him, he’d been tasked to go to Los Angeles to find Johnny Cage, whom Karl Urban is playing in Mortal Kombat II.

Lewis Tan is confirmed to reprise Cole in the sequel, but unless he pops up with blink-and-you-miss-it speed, I have yet to see him in any of the trailers. Furthermore, Johnny is clearly serving as a new everyman character in Mortal Kombat II as a surrogate for the audience. Johnny is a washed-up action film star who’s shocked to learn about this world of superpowered fighters. Cole’s a washed-up mixed martial artist who was shocked to learn about this world of superpowered fighters. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Don’t get me wrong, I hope Cole Young makes it out of Mortal Kombat II alive. Don’t forget, he’s also the descendant of Hanzo Hasashi, a.k.a. Scorpion, and I’ve been hoping that we see them reunite in the sequel. But going off the marketing so far, it’s looking more and more likely to me that Cole will meet his demise early on in Mortal Kombat II. Maybe this is the reason Johnny Cage enters the picture, or maybe Cole dies shortly after Johnny is recruited. Either way, I don’t see him lasting long once the movie begins.

Still, this is a franchise that thrives on killing its characters, so Cole will undoubtedly be just one of the first to fall. In addition to other familiar faces like Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks’ Jax, Ludi Lin’s Liu Kang and Josh Lawson’s Kano returning in Mortal Kombat II, Karl Urban’s Johnny is joined in the newcomer lineup by Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana, Tati Gabrielle’s Jade, Damon Herriman’s Quan Chi and Martyn Ford’s Shao Kahn, among others. As with the first movie, Simon McQuoid directed, while Jeremy Slater handled scriptwriting duties this time around.

Mortal Kombat II punches its way into theaters on May 8. If you need a refresher beforehand, stream the previous movie with your HBO Max subscription. Otherwise, prepare for the possibility we’ll be mourning Cole Young in a few months time.