Highlights
- Mortal Kombat 1 players are excited to continue discovering the abilities and strategies of the game's main and Kameo characters.
- The upcoming Kombat Pack DLC for Mortal Kombat 1 will introduce Homelander, Omni-Man, Peacemaker, Ermac, Quan Chi, and Takeda.
- NetherRealm tried to have John Wick as a guest character, but he arguably wouldn't be a suitable addition due to his lack of distinct abilities and the game's seemingly superhero-themed DLC.
Now that Mortal Kombat 1 has been out in the wild for a moment and it’s even making its way to offline tournament events already, it’s exciting to see what competitive players will be able to discern and accomplish from the game’s main and Kameo roster characters. There’s a lot to unpack between everyone included in the base game, for example, even if professional players took every waking hour to lab characters during the beta and early access periods. Knowing that Mortal Kombat’s Kombat Pack is arriving as DLC in the future, that will only become more prevalent.
Mortal Kombat 1 will introduce Homelander, Omni-Man, Peacemaker, Ermac, Quan Chi, and Takeda in its Kombat Pack, and if recent Mortal Kombat games offer a pattern that can be followed then at least one other Kombat Pack should be anticipated. Leaks have definitely presumed as much, but until official confirmation of new guest characters arrives it is anyone’s guess who will appear. Interestingly, Ed Boon has already ruled out John Wick for Mortal Kombat 1, and while Keanu Reeves’ assassin would’ve been a popular character entry it might be for the best that NetherRealm reportedly couldn’t secure him.
John Wick in Mortal Kombat 1 Wouldn’t Be an Interesting Choice Gameplay-Wise
Mortal Kombat isn’t immune to having characters who are completely human and without some sort of ability enhancement or augmentation, but even a character like Mortal Kombat 1’s Johnny Cage is usually oddly imbued with some sort of power. The less human and more bizarre a character design, however, the more interesting that character is likely to be.
That’s a big reason why someone like John Wick, who is an expert close-quarters combatant and marksman, wouldn’t be necessarily unwelcome in a game as brutal as Mortal Kombat 1, but his gameplay would have nothing of merit to offer it, either. John Wick’s martial arts skill would give him decent options in combat, but ultimately the character would boil down to a zoner with how much of an emphasis gunplay has in the John Wick movies’ fight scenes.
It would be difficult to imagine him doing much else in Mortal Kombat besides firing handguns or throwing projectiles from any range on the stage, and the clearest character parallel to him from a previous NetherRealm game would likely be Injustice 2’s Red Hood or Mortal Kombat X’s Cassie Cage. It would be fun to see how perhaps John Wick’s bulletproof suit jacket could be integrated into his moveset, yet nearly everything about his character wouldn’t make for particularly remarkable or original gameplay otherwise.
John Wick Wouldn’t Have Fit Mortal Kombat 1’s Proposed DLC Theme
Even if NetherRealm concocted an unprecedented way to make John Wick feel like more than a guy with guns, he still wouldn’t be a good match for the alleged theme of guest characters Mortal Kombat 1 is devising. Only three non-Mortal Kombat characters have been officially revealed for the game, but each one coexists in the realm of superhero media—Homelander from The Boys, Omni-Man from Invincible, and Peacemaker from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker.
This could be a coincidence with hand-picked characters selected for this Kombat Pack that all share a similar background, though the more pressing theory is that any following guest characters will also belong to a superhero-related media of some sort. Joker is regularly recurring in NetherRealm games now, so seeing him or Harley Quinn is a logical guess.
NetherRealm obviously adores superhero media and DC in particular with their rich, shared history, so future Kombat Packs with other superheroes or supervillains would be excellent to see. If so, John Wick simply wouldn’t make sense as an inclusion among such characters.
Mortal Kombat 1 is available now for PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S.
