Mortal Kombat 1 Dev Chief Ed Boon Teases T-1000 Fatality and ‘Future DLC’

Ed Boon, Mortal Kombat 1's creative director, recently offered a sneak peek at the T-1000 Terminator's upcoming Fatality and hinted at future downloadable content (DLC) via social media. This announcement coincided with the release of the Conan the Barbarian guest character and the revelation that Mortal Kombat 1 has surpassed five million copies sold.

Boon shared a brief video showcasing a T-1000 Fatality that evokes the memorable truck chase scene from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The clip depicts the T-1000 using a wrecked truck to dispatch its opponent.

His accompanying tweet, "With Conan getting into player’s hands, we are excited to keep trucking forward with future DLC!", sparked considerable speculation within the Mortal Kombat community. While this could simply refer to the imminent arrival of the T-1000, many fans interpret it as a tease for additional DLC characters beyond the current Khaos Reigns expansion.

The T-1000 is the final character slated for the Khaos Reigns expansion, following the additions of Cyrax, Sektor, Noob Saibot, Ghostface, and Conan the Barbarian. The possibility of a third DLC character pack, or "Kombat Pack 3," has been a topic of much fan discussion, fueled by questions surrounding the game's sales performance.

However, Warner Bros. Discovery, Mortal Kombat's parent company, has reaffirmed its commitment to the franchise. CEO David Zaslav stated in November that the company intends to focus heavily on four key titles, with Mortal Kombat being one of them. Ed Boon himself previously confirmed in September that NetherRealm had already chosen its next project three years prior, but pledged continued support for Mortal Kombat 1 "for a long time to come."

While many anticipate a third installment in the Injustice fighting game series as NetherRealm's next project, this remains unconfirmed. The development timeline has deviated from the previously perceived alternating pattern between Mortal Kombat and Injustice games, with Mortal Kombat 1 launching in 2023 after Mortal Kombat 11 (2019). Ed Boon attributed this shift to the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to a newer version of the Unreal Engine (Unreal Engine 4 for Mortal Kombat 1, compared to Unreal Engine 3 for Mortal Kombat 11). He explicitly stated in an interview with IGN that the Injustice franchise remains a possibility.