Latest Mortal Kombat 12 tease hints at possible series reboot

Brianna Reeves
mortal kombat 12 tease

The latest tease for what everyone’s been calling Mortal Kombat 12 hints that the new installment could serve as yet reboot for the series.

While a WB Discovery earnings call previously revealed the next Mortal Kombat game will launch in 2023, a formal announcement has yet to hit the web.

That hasn’t stopped developer NetherRealm Studios from sharing the occasional teaser, though. In fact, an MK12 teaser appeared at the end of Mortal Kombat’s 30th anniversary video.

The clip in question merely depicted an hourglass and a grain of sand exploding into thousands of pieces. Still, it gave longtime fans plenty to discuss; they’re already dissecting the newest post from Mortal Kombat’s social media accounts, too.

New Mortal Kombat 12 tease points to potential reboot

On May 10, the official Mortal Kombat Twitter page unleashed yet another teaser. This one runs just over 15 seconds in length and doesn’t reveal much in the way of concrete information.

The short video depicts a close-up of a clock as the second hand ticks from one number to the next. Interestingly, the hand begins at nine – likely in reference to the reboot entry MK9 – ticks past 10 with ease, then briefly stalls at number 11.

Instead of striking 12, the clock hand skips to number 1, a detail that implies MK12 may actually constitute a full-on reboot.

https://twitter.com/MortalKombat/status/1656343687352426497

Of course, fans were quick to pick up on the sudden jump to 1. “Teasing a reset are we?” one person asked in the thread. Someone else pondered, “So, back to MK1 again?” A series reset isn’t beyond the realm of possibility, given the events of MK11 and the Aftermath expansion.

The “good ending” for Aftermath, in particular, shows Liu Kang using the power of the Keeper of Time Kronika to establish a new era. It seems NetherRealm will follow that same thread into Mortal Kombat’s next mainline entry.