Mortal Kombat 1 could’ve had Keanu Reeves
Back in the planning stages of Mortal Kombat 1, Ed Boon floated the idea of having a full celebrity voice cast for the franchise's fighters - including Keanu Reeves.
19th Oct 2023 12:50
NetherRealm | Lionsgate
Mortal Kombat 1 could’ve had Keanu Reeves
Back in the planning stages of Mortal Kombat 1, Ed Boon floated the idea of having a full celebrity voice cast for the franchise's fighters - including Keanu Reeves.
19th Oct 2023 12:50
NetherRealm | Lionsgate
It's true that Mortal Kombat is no stranger to pop culture crossovers. After all, the fact that its movies have been baked into the cultural consciousness since Paul W.S. Anderson's 1995 fighter is proof enough.
When you look at all of the crossover characters that have come to the MK series, it becomes clear that Mortal Kombat definitely doesn't exist in a vacuum. Adding everyone from Freddy Krueger to Terminator puts it up there with the Smash games in terms of crossover chaos.
As proven by Megan Fox's appearance in MK1 (voicing Nitara), the possibilities are endless. However, the celebrity appearances almost didn't end there, with the legendary Ed Boon explaining how he originally wanted to blow the budget on an all-star cast.
Mortal Kombat 1 was almost made up entirely of celebrities
Ed Boon has revealed that there was a time when he considered filling the cast of Mortal Kombat 1 entirely with celebrity voice work. During an interview with Rolling Stone, Boon revealed that Mortal Kombat 1's full universe reset could've led to celebrity voice actors.
He realised it probably wasn't financially viable, meaning Fox took the limelight for her voice work. Even though Keanu Reeves has spoken out about the idea of John Wick joining the game, it won't stop Boon from wanting him.
"One of the things that I entertained with this game – and this is the 10 out of 10 version – which we didn’t do, was, 'What if every character in this game was played by an actor?'" Boon asked. "Like we got Keanu Reeves to play Kenshi… this is, like, pipe dream. We’re not even thinking of their salaries and all that stuff."
Ed Boon was worried that celebs don't know what goes into game dev
The problems don't end there, with the sheer length of time he'd need to pry these celebs away from their busy schedules being another stumbling block: "There are hundreds of lines of dialogue that they have to read.
"A lot of actors don’t realize just how sophisticated video games are. When you sign up for it, you’re not just signing up to go in one day, be in the recording studio for an hour, and you’re done. It’s like a real acting job." Alongside Fox, Jean-Claude Van Damme lent his likeness to MK1, but that's about your lot.
Reeves is no stranger to video games thanks to Cyberpunk 2077, and as one of Hollywood's biggest names, he would've definitely added something to MK1. We could've had an entirely different Mortal Kombat experience, and to be honest, we'd take more Keanu in anything.
About The Author
Joseph Kime
Joseph Kime is the Senior Trending News Journalist for GGRecon from Devon, UK. Before graduating from MarJon University with a degree in Journalism, he started writing music reviews for his own website before writing for the likes of FANDOM, Zavvi and The Digital Fix. He is host of the Big Screen Book Club podcast, and author of Building A Universe, a book that chronicles the history of superhero movies. His favourite games include DOOM (2016), Celeste and Pokemon Emerald.
