NetherRealm Studios hasn’t revealed what it’s been working on for the last few years. However, it seems as though the team has just officially teased Mortal Kombat 12 in a new anniversary video.
MK12 has been officially teased
The anniversary video in question is mostly filled with various NetherRealm developers thanking fans for 30 years of Mortal Kombat, a milestone the franchise hit in October 2022. Although it seems like a fairly typical celebratory video, Ed Boon, series co-creator, came in at the end and said that the studio is “not quite done yet” with Mortal Kombat. The description on YouTube also explains that NetherRealm is “just getting started.”
It wraps up by cutting to sand falling in an hourglass where the final grain explodes and fills the screen with some green dust. It’s reminiscent of Shang Tsung’s magic and seems to call back to the hourglass from Mortal Kombat 11.
There’s no explicit mention of Mortal Kombat 12, but it’s heavily implied to be about the next game in the series. Warner Bros. did, however, explicitly and unceremoniously bring up Mortal Kombat 12 in a financial call, something Boon cheekily tweeted about after. While Boon has also not shied away from talking about a new Mortal Kombat, even noting that NetherRealm was working on Injustice 3 or Mortal Kombat 12, the team has been working away on something in secret for years after shutting down ongoing support for Mortal Kombat 11.
Previous leaks have pointed to a new Mortal Kombat game, too. Insider Jeff Grubb reported in August 2021 that the team was favoring Mortal Kombat 12 instead of Injustice 3 due to hesitancy surrounding Warner Bros. A NetherRealm developer also seemed to have leaked (and quickly deleted) a desk photo with their monitor in view, which had some file names on it that suggested Mortal Kombat 12. Johnny Cage’s voice actor, Andrew Bowen, even posted a video while visiting a Warner Bros. facility that had some Mortal Kombat-esque music playing in the background. That video was quickly yanked, as well.
