page_title: Mortal Kombat
section_title: Characters
hierarchical_section_title: Mortal Kombat / Plot / Characters
caption_attribution_description: English: Cosplay of Mortal Kombat video game characters, from left to right Kitana, Reptile, and Sonya Blade.
context_page_description: Mortal Kombat is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games, originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, but as that idea fell through, a fantasy-themed fighting game was created instead, nonetheless paying homage to him with nut-cracking movie star character Johnny Cage, whose initials and personal style echo Van Damme's. Mortal Kombat was the first ever fighting game to introduce a secret fighter, reached if the player fulfilled a set of requirements.
  The original game has spawned many sequels and spin-offs consisting of several action-adventure games, as well as a comic book series and a card game. Film producer Lawrence Kasanoff licensed the rights to the game in the early 1990s and produced the first hit film ever made from a video game. Lawrence also produced the second film, animated TV series, live-action TV series films, the first one million platinum-selling album and a live-action tour.
context_section_description: Through its iterations, the series has featured scores of player characters, some of them becoming mainstays, such as Baraka, Cassie Cage, Cyrax, Ermac, Goro, Erron Black, Jade, Jax Briggs, Johnny Cage, Kabal, Kano, Kenshi, Kitana, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Mileena, Motaro, Nightwolf, Noob Saibot, Quan Chi, Raiden, Rain, Reptile, Sektor, Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, Sheeva, Shinnok, Sindel, Smoke, Scorpion, Skarlet, Stryker, and Sub-Zero. Among them are Earth's humans and cyborgs, good and evil deities, and denizens of Outworld and other realms.
  Furthermore, starting with MK vs DCU, which featured several DC Universe heroes and villains, all subsequent games have included guest characters such as Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Kratos from God of War, Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th, the Xenomorph Alien from Alien, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Predator from Predator, the T-800 Terminator model from Terminator, RoboCop, Spawn from Image Comics and the Joker from DC Comics, who was previously in MK vs DCU.
caption: Cosplayers of Kitana, Reptile, and Sonya Blade at Dragon Con 2012
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