Jeremy Slater Says He’s Writing ‘Mortal Kombat 3’ Script, Had ‘Star Wars’ Meeting & Believed Scrapped ‘Fantastic Four’ Script Comparable To ‘Dark Knight’ Trilogy

“Mortal Kombat II” screenwriter Jeremy Slater, in a new interview, has revealed that he’s started early work on the “Mortal Kombat 3” script (yet to be greenlit), he’s met with Lucasfilm about the “Star Wars” franchise, was shocked to discover that 20th Century Fox/producers had abandoned his “Fantastic Four” script for the 2015 reboot, which he believed could have been the next “The Dark Knight” trilogy.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Slater revealed that he’s already working on the second draft of the “Mortal Kombat 3” script without New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. giving the project the official go-ahead, but is taking “lessons” from audiences’ reactions to “Mortal Kombat II” for the next installment.

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“We are not greenlit for a third movie yet. When the initial test screening numbers came back last year, and the studio saw how fans were responding to [‘Mortal Kombat II’], I think they realized that there’s a potential here for this to be an ongoing franchise…they commissioned me to start working on a script for [‘Mortal Kombat III’], and I’m finishing a second draft right now. I’m very, very happy with it. In the same way that we took lessons from the first one and tried to make [‘Mortal Kombat II’] a much better movie, we’re now taking the lessons from [‘Mortal Kombat II’],” Slater said of the status of the third film based on the beloved gory fighting video game.

He also teased that they could end up getting as far as making “Mortal Kombat 4” and “Mortal Kombat 5,” as the universe allows for certain angles to resurrect dead characters. “We have big plans for some of the [deceased] characters and some of their actors if we are lucky enough to do a ‘Mortal Kombat III,’ ‘IV,’ ‘V,’ or however long we can take this. The goal would certainly be to use what happens to some of these characters in this movie as a jumping-off point to tell larger stories and maybe do some course corrections.”

He also talked about nearly landing a “Star Wars” project after meeting with Lucasfilm, but it wasn’t a good fit or the right timing. “I have had some Lucasfilm meetings where I have nerded out to an embarrassing degree. ‘Star Wars’ has always been my white whale. It’s always been the one thing that I’ve been chasing above all else, but I also don’t want to take a job unless I can deliver. I can’t think of anything more depressing and terrifying than getting your shot at Star Wars and then dropping the ball. So we’ve certainly had discussions in the past, but we’ve never found the right project. Maybe it’ll happen someday, maybe it won’t.”

When it came to his time on “Fantastic Four,” Slater believed they could have the Marvel Comics version of Christopher Nolan‘s “The Dark Knight” trilogy on their hands, only to learn that nothing he contributed to the film made it on the screen. This was likely because director Josh Trank had an infamous crash-out, leading to producer/writer Simon Kinberg stepping in to finish/reshoot the misfire reboot.

“I wasn’t privy to whatever drama happened on set [of Trank’s ‘Fantastic Four’]. I wasn’t even really privy to the fact that my entire script had been thrown out. It wasn’t until I was sitting there in that first audience and realizing, Oh no, something happened here. There was nothing in there that remotely resembled what I had set out to do. But there was a good two-year period there where I was walking around very confident. I was like, ‘You guys, just wait for ‘Fantastic Four.’ We’re the next Christopher Nolan. We’ve got the next [‘Dark Knight’] trilogy on the way.’ You always go in with the highest of hopes and the best of aspirations. But sometimes the projects don’t turn out the way that you dreamed about or envisioned.”

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What’s next for Slater? Well, he’s revealed that he’s going to be making his feature film directing debut with his horror film “Summoner,” which has been greenlit and is heading into production later this summer, as they’ve got a greenlight (without naming the “major” studio that has picked it up) and are moving into the casting phase of pre-production.