A fan-favorite character who’s confirmed to appear in Mortal Kombat II hasn’t been featured in any of the movie’s marketing so far. The first trailer for Mortal Kombat II teases that the highly anticipated sequel will primarily follow Johnny Cage as Earthrealm competes in a high-stakes tournament against the strongest fighters from Outworld.

In addition to Johnny Cage, there will be plenty of other new characters in Mortal Kombat II. The trailer for the movie features characters like Kitana, Jade, and Shao Kahn, who is the emperor of Outworld. Shao Kahn will be the main antagonist in Mortal Kombat II, but he won’t be the only villainous character in the sequel.

Queen Sindel, Baraka, and Shang Tsung, who was the primary villain in the first movie, will also serve as antagonistic figures in the sequel. However, the major video game villain Quan Chi has been confirmed to appear in the film too. This revelation makes the movie’s lack of attention on him quite surprising.

Quan Chi Doesn’t Appear In The Mortal Kombat 2 Trailer

Quan Chi is a powerful sorcerer from the Netherrealm who made his debut in the 1997 video game MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero. While Shang Tsung, Shao Kahn, and Shinnok are generally considered the three main villains in the game series, Quan Chi is also one of the most notable antagonists.

Throughout the game series, he has served all three of the aforementioned villains and consistently used his powers to benefit Earthrealm’s enemies.

Quan Chi will be played by Damon Herriman, who is best known for playing Charles Manson in the Netflix series Mindhunter and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. These roles prove that Herriman can effectively portray creepy and unsettling characters, which should make him a great pick to play Quan Chi in Mortal Kombat II.

However, even though the trailer for the sequel gave fans their first look at several popular characters, Quan Chi was not featured at all. It is not known how prominent a role Quan Chi will have in the movie, but it’s an exciting element after he was cut from 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

Annihilation’s deleted scene teased that Quan Chi would have been a prominent villain in the third Mortal Kombat movie, which was canceled following the poor critical performance of the 1997 film. Therefore, his inclusion in Mortal Kombat II can redeem his cut role in Annihilation and finally show movie fans how effective Quan Chi is as a villain.

Beyond leaving him out of the trailer, Quan Chi also didn’t get his own character poster like all the other fighters in Mortal Kombat II. It’s clear the creative team behind the movie doesn’t want to reveal anything about his role or appearance in the marketing.

Why Quan Chi Will Be So Important In Mortal Kombat 2

Even without evidence from the movie’s marketing, Quan Chi should have a major role in Mortal Kombat II if the sequel follows the video games. He’s an important character to introduce even if he’s only around for a few scenes and doesn’t have a prominent role.

Most likely, Quan Chi will be the one who revives characters like Bi-Han, Kano, and potentially other fighters in Mortal Kombat II. By doing this, he will be making Outworld even stronger heading into the tournament against Earthrealm. Earthrealm is already outnumbered, so it definitely won’t be good if Quan Chi brings some major enemies from the first movie back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

By reviving Bi-Han as the shadow ninja Noob Saibot, Quan Chi will be inserting himself into the series’ most bitter rivalry between him and Scorpion. In one of the game’s timelines, it’s revealed that Quan Chi sent Sub-Zero to kill Scorpion’s family, so perhaps Mortal Kombat II will have a major twist like this.

Additionally, there’s a chance that Quan Chi will team up with Shang Tsung, another powerful sorcerer, in Mortal Kombat II. While Quan Chi is generally considered a secondary villain in the game series, teaming up with Shang Tsung elevated him to become one of the main bosses in 2002’s Mortal Kombat: ᴅᴇᴀᴅly Alliance.

Now that Quan Chi is finally joining the movie franchise, there are plenty of fascinating storylines that Mortal Kombat II and future films could tackle. The aforementioned storylines, and many others, prove that Quan Chi could become one of the best characters in the movie franchise.

The fact that Quan Chi hasn’t been included in any of the marketing suggests his role in Mortal Kombat II will be a complete surprise, which is incredibly exciting.