There’s been a lot of talk about Mortal Kombat 1 and its future over the last few months, and with the game’s latest update and some tweets from series co-creator Ed Boon, what’s coming next (if anything at all) is still being widely speculated on.
Potentially narrowing down some of this speculation, though, a PC modder by the name of Interloko has allegedly discovered files in the game after the Conan the Barbarian update that he claims are pointing to more DLC characters coming after the current last known additional fighter, T-1000.
The talk of Mortal Kombat 1 potentially having its next wave of DLC cancelled started getting attention back in November 2024 when a prominent leaker claimed that NetherRealm Studios had planned a Kombat Pack 3 and another installment in the game’s cinematic story, but it had all been scrapped.
This Reddit “verified insider” named FateUnknown said more characters after Kombat Pack 2 (which ends with T-1000) and the second story expansion have all been cancelled due to poor sales of Mortal Kombat 1’s latest major expansion, Khaos Reigns.
In addition to this, FateUnknown also noted that we might see one or two additional Kameo Fighters added to the game after this second wave concludes, but that would only be because the development work on them is already done, though the leaker said they weren’t as confident on this matter.
Since then, there’s been a lot of back and forth about what is actually happening with Mortal Kombat 1. However, this new Conan update and some recent tweets from Ed Boon may have moved the needle more into the realm of possibility that content support is to be extended beyond Kombat Pack 2.
For starters, with the addition of Conan the Barbarian as a DLC fighter also came one of the greatest secrets fighting games have seen in a very long time. The search for the mysterious pink Floyd ninja continues on at the time of writing this, and while some players have definitely encountered him by legitimate means, defeated him, and unlocked the new field stage, how exactly to get him to appear remains a mystery.
On top of all of the hype the game is generating from Floyd right now, Boon took to Twitter the other day to share some updates on the current state of Mortal Kombat 1 and recap some of the recent announcements.
In one of his tweets, Boon said, “With Conan getting into player’s hands, we are excited to keep trucking forward with future DLC.” Along with this, he included a clip showing a quick preview of one of T-1000’s Fatalities in Mortal Kombat 1.
While this could simply be read as Boon talking specifically about T-1000, especially considering the clip, saying “future DLC” to some feels like a bigger blanket statement that could be alluding to more DLC characters after the Terminator 2 villain. And Interloko may have found some files currently in the game that point to exactly that.
The modder started out with a tweet posted on January 22 that read, “I’m confident that T-1000 is NOT the last DLC.” Since then, he has followed up with a full YouTube video not only explaining why that is, but also revealing one of the characters that might be getting hinted at here.
By following the in-game files, Interloko says that the first DLC character discovered here is Kotal Kahn. He clarifies that this is not guaranteed, and not only is it possible it’s not Kotal but that even if it is, it’s still possible he’s cancelled, however, Interloko says that Kotal Kahn is who he believes the files are pointing toward and that he could be coming as DLC after Kombat Pack 2.
Interloko goes on to explain that Ed Boon specifically noted that Conan is the 11th DLC character that has been added to the game, which would make T-1000 the 12th (not counting Kameo Fighters). While digging around in the game’s files, Interloko noticed that they actually point to 20 DLC characters total (again, not counting Kameos), and though this doesn’t mean that 20 are definitely going to be added to the game, at the very least these files say that that is how many the game was intended to have.
The modder also made sure to mention that this time around the methods used for finding these in-game files and proof of the files themselves were not revealed as the last time he did so it appeared the developers moved things around and changed them to better throw those who dig into these things off the scent.
Without proof of what the files look like, it’s hard to say if what Interloko is reporting is true. These kinds of things should always be taken with a grain of salt regardless.
However, Interloko did recently upload some of the first Floyd gameplay footage we’d seen by using PC mods, so there’s clearly an understanding of the innerworkings of Mortal Kombat 1 here.
Source: Event Hubs
