Recently at San Diego Comic-Con, NetherRealm Studios showed off a new trailer for Mortal Kombat 1 that confirmed Li Mei, Baraka, and Tanya for the reboot’s roster of fighters, and Goro and Darrius to the roster of Kameo characters. Now, the developer has also provided new story details on a couple of those additions.
First up is Li Mei, who’s coming back as a playable character for the first time since 2006’s Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. In the Mortal Kombat 1 universe, since she was a child, Li Mei has served with the Umgadi, the warrior priestesses charged with protecting Outworld’s royal family.
Though her time with them started out with promise, after she was blamed for a “tragedy”, she ended up quitting, following which she joined the Sun Do, the “rough and tumble” police force of Outworld’s capital. Now, she serves as the Sun Do’s First Constable, and hopes of one day redeeming herself and her reputation.
Then there’s Baraka, another character native to Outworld that series fans will obviously be very familiar with. After contracting the dreaded, incurable, and highly contagious Tarkat plague – a new spin on the Tarkatan race – Baraka was forced to leave behind his life as a respected merchant, and was cast out and sent to live in a colony full of similarly inflicted people. Upon witnessing the hopelessness that plagued the lives of his fellow Tarkatans, Baraka became more determined than ever to better their lives.
Previously, story details have also been revealed on the likes of Rain, Smoke, Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and many others.
At San Diego Comic-Con, NetherRealm also confirmed that The Boys’ Homelander, DC’s Peacemaker, and Invincible’s Omni-Man will be added to Mortal Kombat 1 as post-launch DLC (with Omni-Man being voiced by J.K. Simmons himself). Reiko and Motaro were also seemingly confirmed for the game’s base roster in trailer shown at the event that hasn’t yet been released, though some screenshots have leaked.
Mortal Kombat 1 launches on September 19 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.