The Autopsy of Cole Young — Why an Original Character Was Killed Off in ‘Mortal Kombat II’
When the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot dropped Cole Young on us, the fandom didn’t just push back — they revolted. Played by Lewis Tan, Cole was a manufactured studio surrogate, a generic MMA fighter with literal plot armor who felt like an unwanted hitchhiker occupying a spot meant for a legacy icon. With Mortal Kombat II, the filmmakers delivered an aggressive narrative course correction.
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Cole is brutally executed in battle when Shao Kahn’s hammer meets his skull, followed by an acid bath. It’s a ruthless clearing of the deck, deliberately designed to shift the spotlight back to the deep-cut game lore we actually put quarters in the machine for.
This wasn’t a narrative accident; it was a cold, calculated response to the audience. Screenwriter Jeremy Slater didn’t mince words when discussing Cole’s sudden demise with Variety. The production team knew exactly how the character was perceived online, and they used his execution to inject a sense of genuine danger into the sequel.
“It’s something I pitched in the round table when they brought in a bunch of writers because at the time I wasn’t writing it. It was someone else’s problem. It’s very easy when you’re just sitting there throwing out ideas to be like, ‘I would kill that guy,’” he claimed.
Yet, it was a rough decision for Slater to make because of the respect he had for the man behind Cole. ”It is tough, because I really like Lewis Tan as an actor. He’s a phenomenal human being and a world-class martial artist. The reality is that his inclusion was something that was sort of studio-mandated in the first movie. They wanted that POV character,” he explained.
By addressing that fan feedback immediately, the filmmakers freed the script from the burden of maintaining an original protagonist’s domestic storyline. It immediately opened the door for the high-stakes Outworld plots.
“But for the fans, they look at Cole Young and they’re like, ‘This guy doesn’t belong.’ It’s like an Avengers movie where you’ve got Iron Man and Captain America, and then you have Bob over here and people are like, ‘He’s not an Avenger.’ The fans have been waiting 30 years to spend time with these characters, and when it’s not one of those characters eating up the screen time, they get resentful,” Slater added.
Lewis Tan understood from day one that stepping into a massive legacy franchise as an original character is a double-edged sword. As such, despite the polarization online, Tan approached Cole’s violent exit with professional grace. “The first movie was a starting point. I like to look at it as a prequel to getting into the tournament. Then the second movie goes straight into the tournament,” he told Vulture.
Tan revealed he knew “early on” that Cole had a smashing Fatality and, moreover, doesn’t see him coming back — ever. That said, he is interested in returning as a new character in part III.
