Ahead of the next Mortal Kombat movie reportedly getting ready to start filming in Australia next month, one of the video game franchise’s longtime heroines has reportedly been cast. Jade, who has been a mainstay in the series since her first appearance in Mortal Kombat II, will follow suit in the upcoming movie, and Tati Gabrielle is apparently in “final negotiations” to play her.
Gabrielle is notably a series regular in Netflix series You, along with starring alongside Tom Holland in last year’s Uncharted movie. Per The Hollywood Reporter, she’s now up for another video game movie with the Mortal Kombat 2 role of Jade. The news comes two weeks after Karl Urban was said to be cast as Johnny Cage in the action flick.
The 27-year-old American actress first found a recurring role on CW’s The 100 in 2017 before becoming among the main cast of Netflix teen horror series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as Prudence Blackwood for four seasons. She also voiced the role of Willow Park in Disney animated series The Owl House and was part of Netflix’s heist series Kaleidoscope, which can be watched in multiple orders.
Jade was previously featured in live-action through the 1997 Mortal Kombat sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, where Siberian supermodel Irina Pantaeva played her. The character iconically wears a green bodysuit/armor and can be a very powerful playable fighter for players of Mortal Kombat games. She is notably the lifelong friend of Princess Kitana, who we also expect to be cast. Both Jade and Kitana are high on our list for Mortal Kombat fighters who need to be featured in the R-rated sequel.
Ok, I Know Mortal Kombat: Annihilation Is Bad, But I'll Still Defend It
The second Mortal Kombat movie is set to be once again directed by Simon McQuoid after the 2021 movie became a hit. The prior movie came out at a time when Warner Bros was releasing movies in theaters and for those with HBO Max subscriptions on the same day. Despite that business model in place and the COVID-19 conditions at the time stunting theatrical success, it had a relatively big box office debut weekend. While critics were mixed on the flick, fans were here for it overall.
Mortal Kombat 2 will be filmed from a screenplay by Jeremy Slater, who wrote scripts for The Umbrella Academy and Marvel’s Moon Knight series. The movie will also once again be backed by James Wan as a producer. It’ll be exciting to see how Jade gets adapted, along with what other new characters join the Mortal Kombat cast in the coming weeks.
Movies and television series based on video games have famously been difficult to adapt and had mixed results, but recently there’s been some bigger wins for video game adaptations between HBO’s incredible The Last of Us series and The Super Mario Bros. Movie becoming 2023’s biggest hit yet. How will the Mortal Kombat sequel do? Stay tuned to fine out!
