First screenshots from the live-action Mortal Kombat movie released

To be quite frank, video game movies feel a bit cursed. Countless times has Hollywood taken a beloved franchise and given it the movie treatment, only to produce a film so bad that fans pretend it doesn’t exist. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule. 1995’s Mortal Kombat may not have been excellent, but it was the right combination of action and 90s campiness to capture the attention of a generation. Now, Mortal Kombat is once again getting the live-action movie treatment, and the first screenshots have been released.

These images come from an exclusive shoot done by Entertainment Weekly. In the EW images, we get our first look at the iconic characters popping up in Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat film. One screenshot gives us a glimpse at Sub-Zero, wielding what appears to be an ice dagger. We also see Jax using his powerful cybernetic arms in combat.

Sub-Zero, played by Joe Taslim.

There are a lot of familiar faces set to pop up in the Mortal Kombat film later this year. Sub-Zero, Jax, Kung Lao, Sonya Blade, Raiden, Liu Kang, Kano, and Mileena are all confirmed to appear, many of them present in the photos released by EW. There will also be a mix of new characters, such as Cole, a fighter who seeks guidance from Jax early in the movie.

Liu Kang and Kung Lao, played by Ludi Lin and Max Huang respectively

Fans will appreciate the accuracy in the recreation of some of these characters, but it’ll be hard to know if they’ve truly done justice to the property until we see the movie for ourselves. Distributed by Warner Bros. Mortal Kombat will release both in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously on April 12, 2021.