Mortal Kombat II is still on track to start production this summer, and Warner Bros. has been gradually revealing new castmates for the upcoming film. The sequel to the 2021 reboot flick appears to have more fan-favourite characters from the games this time around, with Karl Urban and Tati Gabrielle on hand to play Johnny Cage and Jade, respectively. And the newest addition is one of the franchise’s most enduring characters.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Adeline Rudolph has been brought on to play the Outworld princess Kitana. Rudolph made her debut as Agatha Night in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and will reunite with Gabrielle, who was also one of that show’s main cast members. Rudolph later went on to play characters in Riverdale and the adult version of Billie Wesker in Netflix’s Resident Evil series. Her next big role is Bobbie Jo Song in Hellboy: The Crooked Man.
Like Jade, the fan-wielding Kitana first appeared in 1993’s Mortal Kombat II, and has been in the roster of nearly every game since. A princess of the realm of Edenia, Kitana is the stepdaughter of the series’ big bad Shao Kahn and later defects to save the realms from her father. Over the course of the games, she’s died (twice), become an undead revenant, and made into the official ruler of Outworld after defeating her father. She was also the template used to create her sister Mileena, and the two have been in a bloody rivalry for years. (At time of writing, it’s not clear if the character of Mileena or her actor from the first film, Sisi Stringer, will be returning.) Both sisters were some of the first characters revealed by NetherRealm in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1.
Kitana’s been featured in various material outside of the games, most notably in the earlier live-action films, where she was played by Talisa Soto. More recently, she popped up in two of the animated Mortal Kombat Legends films, Scorpion’s Revenge and Battle of the Realms.
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Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.