For over 14 years, NetherRealm Studios has been famous for including a plethora of guest characters from other franchises in their Mortal Kombat and Injustice games. Beginning with 2011’s Mortal Kombat featuring God of War’s Kratos and A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger, each subsequent Mortal Kombat and Injustice game would go on to feature at least one DLC fighter from a different franchise.
For the Injustice franchise, their first guest character from a separate series first began with Mortal Kombat’s very own Scorpion. With NetherRealm potentially moving on to develop Injustice 3 following the release of Mortal Kombat 1: Definitive Edition, the developer may consider continuing the tradition of featuring Mortal Kombat characters as DLC in the Injustice series.
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The History of Injustice’s Mortal Kombat Guest Characters
2013’s Injustice: Gods Among Us launched with a Season Pass, allowing players to acquire all future DLC fighters once they officially debuted. While Injustice 1’s first DLC fighters in the form of Lobo and Batgirl were released in early 2013, Scorpion was announced as the third DLC fighter and first guest fighter from an alternate franchise for the Injustice series in early summer 2013. However, Scorpion wasn’t a one-to-one inclusion from Mortal Kombat as he featured an entirely new appearance designed by famed comic book artist and then-DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee. In terms of gameplay, Scorpion still featured his iconic kunai and fiery powers as well as a sword, but he couldn’t perform any fatalities.
Scorpion’s inclusion in Injustice 1’s roster proved to be a highly successful and profitable move as Hanzo Hasashi went on to become the most downloaded DLC fighter in the game. Due to this success, NetherRealm chose to include not just one but two Mortal Kombat guest characters as DLC fighters for Injustice 2. In Injustice 2’s Fighter Pack 1, players were able to download Kuai Liang Sub-Zero alongside Red Hood and Starfire, while Fighter Pack 2 allowed players to download Raiden alongside Black Manta and Dark Horse Comics’ Hellboy. Like Injustice 1’s Scorpion, both Sub-Zero and Raiden’s appearances in Injustice 2 were designed by Jim Lee.
Injustice 1’s Scorpion was played by Patrick Seitz, who previously played the character in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and 2011’s Mortal Kombat, while Injustice 2’s Sub-Zero and Raiden were played by Steve Blum and Richard Epcar, who previously played their respective characters in Mortal Kombat X.
Potential Mortal Kombat Guest Characters in Injustice 3
With every prior Mortal Kombat guest character in the Injustice series being one of the original fighters first introduced in the original 1992 Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet, it’s likely NetherRealm will continue this trend and have some of the remaining members of the original roster appear in Injustice 3. One likely choice for NetherRealm to include in Injustice 3’s DLC could be the chosen one himself, Liu Kang. The most prominent protagonist of most Mortal Kombat stories, Liu Kang would make a good choice to be included in Injustice 3 nowadays, not only for his popularity and significance in the Mortal Kombat franchise, but because he’s the literal creator of Mortal Kombat 1’s modern timeline.
As a Titan and God of Fire and Thunder, Liu Kang could additionally explain how he appeared in Injustice’s universe by simply claiming he opened a portal to that universe, similar to how he opened portals to Titan Havik’s timeline in Mortal Kombat 1’s Khaos Reigns DLC. Since Injustice 2 featured two Mortal Kombat characters, it’s possible that NetherRealm could feature two Mortal Kombat characters in Injustice 3. If this turns out to be the case, another plausible choice to be featured in Injustice 3 could be Johnny Cage, especially due to his prominent roles in Mortal Kombat 1 and the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 film starring Karl Urban as the Hollywood movie star.
A Potential Third Mortal Kombat Character in Injustice 3
The first Injustice game featured one Mortal Kombat character, and the second Injustice game featured two, so NetherRealm could continue this trend by featuring three Mortal Kombat characters in Injustice 3. If this turns out to be the case and Liu Kang and Johnny Cage are the first two Mortal Kombat characters featured in Injustice 3, a possible third fighter could be the four-armed Shokan Goro. The sub-boss of 1992’s Mortal Kombat, Goro has become one of Mortal Kombat’s most iconic antagonists, having appeared in both the 1995 and 2021 Mortal Kombat films as well as most Mortal Kombat games. Goro could further spice up the fighter and gameplay variety of Injustice 3, as not too many prominent DC Comics characters have four arms.
Injustice 2
9/10
- Released
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May 11, 2017
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Alcohol Reference, Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Engine
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unreal engine 3, unreal engine 4