Highlights
- Mortal Kombat 1 introduces a new universe and alters the backgrounds and origins of its iconic roster, creating a sense of mystery and excitement around its main antagonist.
- Unlike previous games in the franchise, where fans knew the main villain from the beginning, Mortal Kombat 1 has kept the identity of its antagonist a secret for now, leading to speculation and increased anticipation for the game's story mode.
- The decision to keep the central villain a mystery adds an intriguing element to Mortal Kombat 1's narrative, setting it apart from other fighting games in the genre.
The Mortal Kombat franchise has a pretty rich history of antagonists. Over the last three decades, Mortal Kombat may have only had a handful of unique primary villains, but each of those has been incredibly iconic, and each has surrounded themselves with almost equally iconic minions. Of course, the most memorable Mortal Kombat villain team is the original one, with Shao Kahn leading the pack, and Shang Tsung acting as his vice-villain.
But then there are characters like Shinnok and Onaga, along with minor antagonists like Baraka, Mileena, Reptile, Kano, and Kabal. And while Mortal Kombat 1 is undoubtedly going to be using a lot of these familiar faces, it's all still a bit of a mystery. Taking place in Fire God Liu Kang's new universe, Mortal Kombat 1 sees its iconic roster flipped on its head, with each character having a wholly new background and origin. And with this new universe changing things up, fans don't really know what this altered set of heroes is going up against. Right now, Mortal Kombat 1's main antagonist is a complete mystery, and it's all very exciting.
The Mystery Surrounding Mortal Kombat 1's Antagonist is Very Exciting
In the past, fans have always had a good idea of what to expect when going into a Mortal Kombat story mode. In the original set of games, though Mortal Kombat's story was minimal, fans still knew that Shao Kahn was the main villain that the Earthrealm warriors were going up against. And when NetherRealm Studios rebooted the timeline in 2011, fans still knew what they were in for, with the game retelling the events of that original trilogy.
Though Mortal Kombat X's now-iconic first trailer focused on a CG fight between Sub-Zero and Scorpion, it was quickly revealed that Shinnok would be taking the role of the sequel's primary antagonist, and for long-time fans of the series, this was more than enough information to get a good idea of what lay in store, with Shinnok having already played a major antagonistic role in several previous Mortal Kombat games. In the very first trailer for Mortal Kombat 11, Kronika is revealed, along with a past version of Scorpion, and while fans didn't know all the details yet, it didn't take much to put two and two together and uncover that Mortal Kombat 11 would revolve around this new antagonist bringing past versions of characters to the present day.
But for possibly the first time in franchise history, fans don't really have a clue who will be the main antagonist of Mortal Kombat 1. Over the last few months, a handful of Mortal Kombat 1 trailers have dropped, each one introducing a new set of fighters and revealing how they fit in Fire God Liu Kang's new universe.
But while through these trailers fans have learned quite a bit about these new versions of iconic Kombatants, they haven't learned all that much about Mortal Kombat 1's wider story, or really anything about its antagonist. All that's really been revealed so far is that Fire God Liu Kang is putting together some kind of team to defeat some mysterious oncoming threat. In the latest Mortal Kombat 1 trailer, the guardian of the Hourglass Geras comes to visit Liu Kang and warns him of some threat coming to disrupt his new peaceful timeline.
Naturally, this has led to a lot of speculation among fans, and a lot of that speculation is only getting fans more hyped for Mortal Kombat 1's story mode. Although Mortal Kombat 1's new universe is sure to have plenty of surprises already in store with its tweaked character backstories, keeping its central villain a mystery is giving the game's story mode a sense of intrigue that isn't usually present in the fighting game genre.
Mortal Kombat 1 releases on September 19 for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
