The Mortal Kombat franchise is one of the longest running fighting game series still around today. With now over 30 years of uppercuts and spine rips, the bloody fighter is easily one of the most recognizable in not only in the fighting game space, but also in video games in general.
In a recent interview with Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon, the veteran game developer spoke about the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns expansion. When talking about what the future holds for the franchise, Boon mentioned something very interesting in saying that he feels like Mortal Kombat as whole is getting closer to becoming a “forever franchise.”
Late last month, Boon sat down with GameSpot to discuss the freshly announced Khaos Reigns expansion at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. Within this interview, Boon explained why Sektor and Cyrax — two of the main roster characters joining the game with Khaos Reigns — are now female, as well as the motivation for picking the guest characters that Mortal Kombat 1 developers NetherRealm Studios did for Kombat Pack 2.
The interviewer asked Boon what excites him about what he can still bring to the franchise after a legendary 30+ year run. Boon responded and said, essentially, that Mortal Kombat’s staying power and the heights it can still reach are on his mind right now.
“The fact that everybody’s coming along with us for the ride and it’s 30 years in, there’s a certain amount of ‘we can’t let people down’ and we got to keep this going,” Boon started. “To me, Mortal Kombat feels like it’s getting closer to a forever franchise.
“It’s like Marvel, it’s like DC, it’s like Star Wars where even if we took a break for five years or something like that, there would be somebody saying, ‘Hey, is there going to be another Mortal Kombat game?’ Is there going to be another Marvel movie? Is there going to be another DC movie?
“So, I do feel like it has that kind of long lasting appeal. The games keep doing well, so we’re always excited to give players what they’re looking for,” Boon concluded.
For those wondering what Boon means when he says “forever franchise,” the master game developer is referring to franchises in media that are so large and popular that the expectation for another installment from fans never ceases.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope originally released back in 1977, and after nine main series installments, numerous side films, novels, TV shows, and pretty much every other form of entertainment you could ever want to see made out of an IP, the Star Wars franchise is one that is never out of the minds of fans.
The masses always expect another movie to drop at some point, no matter how much time has passed, and with the size and scope of the franchise now there’s a good chance another installment will always come eventually.
Boon feels that Mortal Kombat is on its way to being in a similar boat — obviously relative to video games and not as a direct competitor to Star Wars or Marvel — and with how successful on the sales front Mortal Kombat games tend to be, he might be absolutely right.