At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, NetherRealm Studios celebrated Mortal Kombat 1 with a panel announcing their new expansion, Khaos Reigns. Among those in attendance for the panel were NetherRealm Studios Chief Creative Officer and Co-Creator of Mortal Kombat 1, Ed Boon, Sub-Zero voice actor Kaiji Tang, and newly-announced Sektor voice actor Erika Ishii. We spoke with them about being involved in this iconic franchise.

Mortal Kombat 1 Interviews at San Diego Comic-Con

Mortal Kombat 1 is one year old! At SDCC, NetherRealm Studios discussed year 2 and their newest expansion, Khaos Reigns. Kaiji Tang plays the role of Sub-Zero as both Bi-Han and Noob Saibot. Erika Ishii is playing Sektor, a legacy character.

Kaiji Tang plays the role of characters in a number of fighting games, but nothing quite like this. He discusses voicing two very different versions of the same character.

“Bi-Han, as grumpy as he is, he truly believes in what he’s doing. So, in his eyes, he’s not a villain. He’s just doing it for the boys! Noob Saibot is basically Bi-Han without the guilt. Guilt-free Bi-Han! Right? He’s embraced his lust for power. He’s going after it…It’s always fun being able to voice a villain that, you know, that has thrown aside the moral quandaries and has just embraced his fate.”

Erika Ishii talks about growing up playing the games. Joining the team as a legacy character is a dream of theirs come true. Furthermore, this is a completely new version of Sektor. Erika talks about bringing this version to life.

“It’s interesting because I got to sort of honor the legacy and the lore of the old Sektor. But, really, also give something completely different to this one. And I do martial arts. I grew up playing Mortal Kombat. So, it was really a dream for me to get to try and find her.”

Ed Boon, Chief Creative Officer at NeatherRealm Studios, says that panels at these conventions are a great way to announce what’s coming for the game. He let us know that the creative team behind the game asked themselves what we asked: What does it look like to create a new game in a universe that has been around for so long?

“It was 30 years of telling a story that just went for a lot of chapters. And we really felt like it was time to just kind of reset things. Start telling a new story. We did want to keep these characters that players loved and are just, you know, iconic and kind of remember. But, we wanted to tell them in a brand new story.”

Khaos Reigns is coming September 24th.