Although the first Kombat Pack of Mortal Kombat 11 is only half way complete, rumors surrounding what's next have begun to swirl. Leaks have continued to hound the title even before its original launch earlier this year. In fact, the community managed to discover a ton of characters on the roster like Noob Saibot and Erron Black well before they were officially announced by the studio.
The most recent leaks for the game are now highlighting who could come next. Just recently, new audio files were uncovered from the PC version of the game for the various announcers and voice lines for upcoming DLC characters like Joker and SIndel. However, audio files were also discovered for Fujin, a character that has yet to be revealed in any capacity for Mortal Kombat 11. Speculation has taken off following this discovery including how the character may eventually be added to the game.
While nothing is official at this time, the potential discovery lends plenty of credibility to rumors indicating a Kombat Pack 2 which includes Fujin and another veteran fighter, Sheeva. While it's been a while since the four armed Shokan has been playable, she may not be familiar to a lot of newer Mortal Kombat 11 players.
Origins
Originally making her debut in Mortal Kombat 3, the scantily clad Sheeva stood out from other characters on the roster due to her sheer size and four arms. She's part of the Shokan race who are half human, half dragon warriors who originate from Outworld. Shokan are incredibly strong and the race actually has two variants including the royal Draco, such as Sheeva and the Tigrar lineage who are generally viewed as lower class.
Players may be more familiar with Goro, a character first seen in the original Mortal Kombat as the penultimate boss prior to Shang Tsung and then finally made playable in MKX. According to the franchise's lore, Sheeva originally served as Queen Sindel's personal bodyguard during Shao Kahn's failed invasion of Earthrealm.
Behind the Scenes
During her initial development, the Midway team referred to her as She-Goro. Eventually, the team settled on her current name, based on the Hindu Goddess of Destruction, Shiva.
Since she was intended to be much larger than a normal fighter, the studio went away from the traditional motion capture techniques with live actors portraying in-game characters like Sub-Zero or Scorpion. Instead, the studio created a clay figure and used stop motion to capture Sheeva's moves. Her figure would be moved in very small increments while individually photographing each frame. By putting the frames together in a sequence, the developers were able to make it appear as if she was moving on her own.
The same process was done for other larger characters like Goro, Kintaro, and Motaro.
Recent Appearances
Since her arrival in Mortal Kombat 3, Sheeva continued to be featured in the many offshoots that followed like Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Oddly enough, Sheeva was removed from the SNES and Genesis versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, though players found a glitch in the Nintendo version which let them control an invisible version complete with two fatalities via the Easy Finisher option.
Unfortunately, her role was reduced following the series' move to the 3D realm, only appearing as a cameo in MK: Deception and the PSP spinoff MK: Unchained. However, she returned as a playable character in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Following the fall of Midway Games and the Mortal Kombat team's resurrection as NetherRealm Studios, Sheeva was also included as a playable character in Mortal Kombat 9, her last true appearance to this point.
Her Link to Mortal Kombat 11
After a lengthy hiatus, Sheeva makes her non-playable return in Mortal Kombat 11. Currently, she's Queen of the Shokan who is approached by the time-displaced Kitana in an attempt to get her to join side's with Kotal Kahn over Shao Kahn. Initially she refuses to join in the war, though she later changes her mind when the Tarkatans ally themselves against Kronika.
NeatherRealm Studios previously confirmed that it would like to keep developing new content for Mortal Kombat 11 years after its initial release and previous leaks may have outed multiple Kombat Packs. Rumors and leaks surrounding characters like Spawn, The Terminator, and The Joker have been proven true, which makes it seem like Sheeva could be on the way potentially next year if and when a new round of character DLC is announced.
Mortal Kombat 11Â is out now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, with a Stadia version also in development.
