Key Highlights:
- NetherRealm Studios released its first direct Mortal Kombat 1 teaser on 1 May 2023.
- The footage showed sand falling through an Hourglass before a single grain exploded.
- The imagery foreshadowed Liu Kang’s recreated timeline and the New Era introduced in Mortal Kombat 1.
NetherRealm Studios released its first direct teaser for Mortal Kombat 1 on 1 May 2023, ending a 30th-anniversary thank-you video with an exploding grain of sand inside an Hourglass.
The ten-second sequence appeared after members of NetherRealm thanked players for supporting Mortal Kombat across three decades. Series co-creator Ed Boon concluded the message by saying: “We’re not quite done yet.”
The footage then cut to sand falling through an Hourglass. The camera focused on one individual grain, which exploded into an image resembling a newly forming universe.
NetherRealm did not name the game or explain the symbolism at the time. However, the Hourglass provided a direct connection to the ending of Mortal Kombat 11 and its Aftermath expansion.
Kronika used the Hourglass to manipulate history and repeatedly restart the timeline. After defeating her, Fire God Liu Kang gained control of the artefact and created a New Era shaped around his vision of peace.
The Hourglass footage followed several cryptic social media teasers from Ed Boon, including a post containing the word “tick” 12 times.
The first teaser therefore pointed towards a rewritten universe rather than a straightforward continuation of the previous Mortal Kombat timeline. The exploding grain also suggested that the established flow of time had been disrupted before a new reality emerged.
This interpretation was confirmed when Warner Bros. Games announced Mortal Kombat 1 on 18 May 2023. The reveal introduced a reborn Mortal Kombat universe created by Fire God Liu Kang and confirmed that NetherRealm’s next game would not use the expected Mortal Kombat 12 title.
The announcement trailer showed several familiar characters living altered lives within Liu Kang’s New Era. Raiden appeared as a mortal Earthrealm fighter, while Scorpion and Sub-Zero were presented as members of the Lin Kuei.
NetherRealm released another time-themed teaser before the full announcement. A clock moved from nine to ten and eleven before skipping twelve and stopping at one, providing a clearer indication that the game would be called Mortal Kombat 1 rather than Mortal Kombat 12.
Warner Bros. Games released Mortal Kombat 1 on 19 September 2023 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC.
The exploding grain was deliberately vague when it first appeared. In retrospect, it served as the first visual representation of Mortal Kombat 1’s central premise: the previous timeline had ended, and Liu Kang’s New Era was beginning.
