Characters of the Mortal Kombat series


This is a list of playable and boss characters from the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise and the games in which they appear. Created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, the series depicts conflicts between various realms. Most characters fight on behalf of their realm, with the primary heroes defending Earthrealm against conquering villains from Outworld and the Netherrealm. Early installments feature the characters participating in the eponymous Mortal Kombat tournament to decide their realm's fate. In later installments, Earthrealm is often invaded by force.
Starting with Mortal Kombat 9, several guest characters have appeared in the franchise, with the characters exclusive to their particular game and not appearing in subsequent entries. These guest characters include:

Goro

Goro is the sub-boss of the first Mortal Kombat game. He is a Shokan, a half-human, half-dragon race distinguished by his four arms and enormous size. He became Grand Champion of the Mortal Kombat tournament after defeating the Great Kung Lao, and held the title for the next 500 years as part of evil sorcerer Shang Tsung's plan to manipulate the tournament in order to achieve Outworld emperor Shao Kahn's goal of dominance of Earthrealm. However, these plans were thwarted when the Earthrealm warrior Liu Kang defeated both Goro and Shang Tsung, allowing Earthrealm to regain control of the tournament. Goro disappeared thereafter and was believed to be dead. In Mortal Kombat II, Goro is succeeded by another member of his race, [|Kintaro], and is not seen again until the 1996 compilation game Mortal Kombat Trilogy, in which all the characters from the first three series games were playable. Goro was initially omitted from Mortal Kombat 4, but was included as a sub-boss in the home versions of the game.
In the training mode of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Goro is mortally wounded and presumed dead. In the 2004 follow-up game Mortal Kombat: Deception, he has been saved from death by Shao Kahn, with the promise of returning his fellow Shokan to their former glory and the banishment of their archenemies, the Centaurs, in exchange for his allegiance, and resumes his place at Shao Kahn's side. Goro was not playable in either game. He is a boss character in the 2005 beat 'em up title Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. In the 2011 Mortal Kombat series reboot, Goro resumes his role as the sub-boss of the Shaolin Tournament from the first game, and is again defeated by Liu Kang in the story mode. He is playable in the 2015 title Mortal Kombat X as a bonus pre-order character, again serving as a sub-boss in the game's arcade-ladder mode. In Mortal Kombat 11, Goro's corpse appears in the story mode and in his "Lair" stage during gameplay. Goro appears in Mortal Kombat 1 as an assist character, or "Kameo Fighter", and via a minor appearance in the story mode as a member of General Shao's army.
Goro's original design was as a two-armed humanoid character named Rokuro, a member of "a race of demon warriors" who would join the tournament "to restore the pride and respect of his race". Series creators Ed Boon and John Tobias drew design inspiration from the stop motion adventure films of Ray Harryhausen, especially his depiction of Kali in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad in redesigning Goro with four arms. He was originally named "Gongoro" before his final name was determined, and was constructed as a stop-motion clay figurine that eventually fell apart after excessive use in capturing its movements for the game.
Goro has a prominent role in Malibu Comics' Mortal Kombat series that followed the events of the first game, and was the subject of the 1994 three-issue miniseries Goro: Prince of Pain. In the 2015 DC Comics Mortal Kombat X prequel series, he is featured in a subplot that shows him fighting and being maimed by Kotal Kahn in a battle for the Outworld throne. Goro is the reigning champion in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat that follows the events of the original game, and was a life-sized animatronic model that cost over $1 million to construct and required over a dozen puppeteers to operate. Goro again reprised his role as the defending tournament champion in the 2020 animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge that retold the events of the original game, but was a supporting villain in the 2021 live-action reboot film Mortal Kombat, in which he was computer-generated.
Goro has received positive critical reception for his formidableness as a boss character in the games, but his cinematic portrayals, particularly in the 2021 film, have been negatively received. Michael Kennedy of Screen Rant commented in 2021, "While the puppetry used to bring Goro to life had its limitations, Goro played a vital role in the story, serving as a major roadblock to thunder god Raiden's defense of Earthrealm. While he returned in Mortal Kombat 2021, his inclusion felt more like an afterthought than anything."

Johnny Cage

Kano

Liu Kang

Raiden

Reptile

Scorpion

Shang Tsung

Sonya Blade

Sub-Zero

Introduced in ''Mortal Kombat II''

Baraka

Jade

Jax

Kintaro

Kintaro is the sub-boss for both Mortal Kombat II and also in the 2011 reboot. He is also the penultimate boss of Mortal KombatShaolin Monks. A Shokan, he shares his species' four arms and imposing size, but is distinguished by his tiger-like stripes. Kintaro participates in Shao Kahn's attempt to conquer Earthrealm during the second game's tournament, in which he is defeated by Liu Kang. In the reboot, he is defeated by Kung Lao during the tournament. The reboot also establishes him as being responsible for Kabal's injuries. In the 2015 Mortal Kombat X prequel comic, Kintaro is killed by Sonya Blade while she is under Havik's control.
The character was a stop-motion clay figure whose design was inspired by the Japanese mythological character Kintarō. He was initially conceived for MKII as an anthropomorphic fur-lined bipedal tiger, but the concept was scrapped due to the difficulty of creating such a complicated outfit. According to series co-creator John Tobias, Kintaro was redesigned as a "Goro spinoff" who was possibly a Shokan general, but not royalty.
Kintaro appears in the animated film Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, voiced by Dave B. Mitchell.
Kintaro has received a middling reception due to his minor role in the series and is often unfavorably compared to Goro; UGO Networks opined in 2012 that Kintaro "serves no real purpose except for being a reskinned Goro whose sole purpose is to avenge the aforementioned's death" in the conclusion of the original game. Game Informer, in 2021, rated him 56th among the series' 76 playable characters: "Kintaro’s arrival wasn’t as impactful as Goro's since the Shokan boss thing had already been done before. NetherRealm also seems content with giving him more and more feline attributes in place of a personality." Den of Geek wrote that he "has virtually no story to speak of outside of the retcon". His "Reverse Rip" from the reboot was rated 35th by Prima Games in their 2014 list of the series' top fifty Fatalities.

Kitana

Kung Lao

Mileena

Noob Saibot

Noob Saibot is an undead wraith from the Netherrealm and a member of a cult called the Brotherhood of the Shadow who worships a fallen Elder God, later revealed to be Shinnok. In Mortal Kombat: Deception, he discovers, reactivates, and reprograms the cyborg ninja Smoke, intending to use his body as the basis for an undead cyborg army. In his ending, he is revealed to be a resurrected Bi-Han, who previously operated as Sub-Zero before he was killed by Scorpion. In Mortal Kombat, Saibot is resurrected off-screen by Quan Chi and Shao Kahn. While defending the former's "Soulnado", Saibot is defeated by his brother and new Sub-Zero Kuai Liang and presumed dead after being pulled into the Soulnado. In Mortal Kombat 11, Saibot resurfaces as a servant of [|Kronika], having gained increased power. In the new timeline depicted in Mortal Kombat 1s DLC expansion Khaos Reigns, Bi-Han is captured by Titan Havik, who converts him into Saibot.
The character's name comes from the last names of Mortal Kombats creators, Ed Boon and John Tobias, spelled backwards. Saibot first appeared in Mortal Kombat II as a non-playable hidden character and a solid-black palette swap of the game's other male ninja characters, whom players could fight after winning fifty straight matches. Spurred by the positive reaction to the hidden character Reptile from the first game, Boon added Saibot to MKII without Tobias' knowledge, though Tobias would later create the character's initial backstory as a Netherrealm wraith.
He makes a cameo appearance in Mortal Kombat Annihilation, played by J. J. Perry, and in a self-titled episode of Mortal Kombat: Conquest, played by martial artist Kimball Uddin. He will appear in the upcoming film Mortal Kombat II, portrayed by Joe Taslim, continuing the traditional story of Bi-Han's transformation into the wraith.
Noob Saibot received positive critical reception due to his evolution from a gag palette-swap to a more fully-fledged character, and particularly for his "Make a Wish" Fatality from the 2011 reboot game. In July 2011, The Daily Shows Jon Stewart played a video of the finisher while explaining the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that the ESRB could regulate video games without government intervention.