Episode 1 of Mortal Kombat: Legacy, directed by Kevin Tancharoen, has posted to the Machinima channel on YouTube (embedded on page two of this review) and has around 2.7 million views at time of writing. This is set to be a ten-episode, web-based, live-action series 
that brings the story to an updated setting and hope to forget the failed live-action attempts of the past.
Mortal Kombat Film and TV History
Film:
- Mortal Kombat (1995) $122M worldwide
- Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) $51M worldwide
- Mortal Kombat:Rebirth (10 minute online film and basis for Legacy)
Television:
- Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (1996, animated)
- Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998-99)
Both television series ran one season before being canceled. I remember them clearly and I am glad they were canceled as they were quite bad.
Home Video
- Mortal Kombat: The Journey begins (1996)
This animated film was direct-to-home-video and was animated.
Now we have Mortal Kombat: Legacy which Warner Premiere has ordered ten episodes of, which seems somewhat pessimistic considering the production quality is pretty high and costs should be lower than if it were television. Plus, a television show, when picked up, usually gets around 12-15 episodes purchased. It seems like Warner Bros is far less sure of this series’ potential success.
But banking on the Mortal Kombat name has usually been gold and the 2.7M views on the first episode shows that the fans are still as rabid as ever. It is over a decade since we’ve had anything real in the franchise so I have to agree, it’s got potential to do well.
Now onto the episode itself.
