'Mortal Kombat: Rebirth' Digital Series First Casting Details

Game Rant

By GR Staff

Published Feb 15, 2011

Kevin Tancharoen's viral 'Mortal Kombat: Rebirth' sensation last year was announced as a web series last month. Find out who has made the cut to play the first set of characters for the series.

Warner Premiere today announced their initial casting for the upcoming live-action digital series Mortal Kombat, which was previously dubbed Mortal Kombat: Rebirth. The three characters casted were for Sonya, Jax and Kano. Jeri Ryan, from Star Trek: Voyager, played Sonya Blade in the unofficial Mortal Kombat trailer Game Rant posted last year and will be reprising her role. Michael Jai White, from The Dark Knight and Spawn, reprises his role as Jax, and 300's Darren Shahlavi rounds out the partial reveal, playing the role of Kano. Kevin Tancharoen, director of the unofficial trailer is also directing, producing and co-writing this series.

Game Rant covered the April release announcement last month and Warner Bros. makes the smart move of capitalizing on the excitement of Mortal Kombat's reboot release in April for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Worldwide web users have tuned into the unofficial trailer more than 10 million times, so keeping the same director, producer, and writer will help assure the same gritty, violent portrayal throughout the web series. Aaron Helbing and Todd Helbing join Kevin to form the writing team. Says Kevin:

“It’s extremely gratifying to have such talented actors playing these iconic roles... They will bring the essence of Mortal Kombat to life and gamers will be deeply immersed into the game’s universe.”

For those who haven't seen last year's dream come true NSFW trailer, have a looksy. Characters included will be "spoiled" below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs3ROFNxa5M

Eight characters were included in the trailer: Sonya, Jax, and Scorpion were in the police station; Johnny Cage is fighting Baraka; Reptile has a cut scene; Shang Tsung and Sub-Zero are shown in photographs. So far, director Kevin Tancharoen has adhered to the casts of the first two Mortal Kombat games. Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 characters such as Mileena, Sindel, Smoke, and Cyrax all deserve their chance at retribution in this series, as well. Those who have seen the second movie from 1997 have my sympathies.

Mortal Kombat releases on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 19, 2011.