If you thought a short-lived campaign to get Scooby-Doo‘s Shaggy Rogers into Mortal Kombat 11 was weird, well, you don’t know the half of it.
According to series co-creator and director Ed Boon, in fact, such petitions aren’t even close to stealing the #1 spot when it comes to unexpected roster additions. During an appearance at FestiGame last month, the industry veteran described how NetherRealm Studios is often asked to bring back popular characters for the latest installment. Of course, Smoke, Reptile and Ermac as well as the iconic cyborgs Sektor and Cyrax have remained noticeably absent from the gruesome brawler since it launched back in 2019, having failed to make the cut multiple times in favor of DLC combatants such as Mileena, Rain and a slew of guest stars.
Indeed, the series has become just as famous for its inclusion of third party properties (Joker, Terminator, Rambo, RoboCop, etc) as its native creations, though not everyone is welcome, it would seem.
Answering the question of whom he believes is the strangest character ever directly requested by fans, Boon replied with: “I think it would be when they asked ‘Why don’t you put Ed Boon as a fighter in the game?’ I never understood why they would ask that.” “That’s such a strange question,” he continues, adding: “And I don’t think that’s ever going to happen either. I don’t want people coming up with ways to cut my head off.” An absolutely fair perspective, no doubt, and we certainly don’t blame Boon for finding such situations unusual.
As for a serious potential expansion of Mortal Kombat 11‘s already impressive cast, the game director doesn’t give any hints on that front, though we certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see some glaring omissions added before NetherRealm moves on to new projects. Until then, be sure to let us know which Earthrealmers or denizens of Outworld you’d like to see make a comeback in the usual place below and watch this space for further updates.