As previously highlighted by Ed Boon himself, the term “Ermac” was simply intended to be an abbreviation of “Error Macro” which essentially acts as a counter for the number of errors logged in the original Mortal Kombat. However, this term ended up sparking up rumors regarding a hidden opponent in addition to Reptile.
Starting in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Ermac would actually become a playable character. History Behind the Warrior recently uploaded a video that talks about Ermac’s development history, as well as his backstory throughout the timelines that we’ve seen so far.
In the original timeline, Ermac was created to serve Shao Kahn. Due to a chance encounter with Kenshi, however, Ermac would eventually fight for the forces of good after attaining his freedom.
During the first rebooted timeline (Mortal Kombat 9, Mortal Kombat X, and Mortal Kombat 11), Ermac would exclusively fight for Outworld. Of course, it should be noted that his last canonical appearance in this particular timeline was in Mortal Kombat X, though he did have a redesigned look that appeared in the Krypt, a single player mode in Mortal Kombat 11.
Regardless, Ermac’s story has seemingly changed quite a bit in Mortal Kombat 1. Though it appeared that Jerrod had taken control of Ermac at the end of Mortal Kombat 1’s story, this would appear to no longer be the case based on what’s been said about Ermac’s backstory reveal.
Check it all out in the video below: