Warning! Spoilers ahead for Mortal Kombat (2021).
Mileena dies a grizzly death in the Mortal Kombat reboot, and that ending creates a huge missed opportunity for Mortal Kombat 2. While Mileena has never been one of the series’ biggest antagonists, she’s consistently appeared throughout the games as fearsome and dangerous foe for the warriors of Earthrealm. She fills a similar role in the Mortal Kombat movie, but her death cuts off some big potential for the sequel.
In the video games, Mileena is created by Shang Tsung through a series of dark, sorcerous experiments. Essentially, she is a clone of Princess Kitana – Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn’s adopted daughter – whose Edenian DNA was spliced with the ferocious, near-monstrous blood of the Tarkatans. The result was a warrior who literally thirsted for blood, and who maintained a constant desire to outperform and replace Kitana.
While Kitana doesn’t appear in the Mortal Kombat reboot, she is teased (one of her fans appears in Raiden’s temple), and she’s a likely addition if Mortal Kombat 2 gets made. As one of the most powerful heroes in the MK universe and Liu Kang’s main love interest, Kitana would surely play a major role in the film franchise. Mileena is a big part of Kitana’s story though, and killing her off before Kitana’s even introduced is a big missed opportunity.
Shao Kahn conquered Kitana’s home realm of Edenia, and though she’s loyal to him at first (for lack of any other options), she eventually joins up with Liu Kang and the Earthrealm champions to fight against him. The Emperor had Shang Tsung create Mileena in part because he feared Kitana would turn on him one day, and the rivalry between them is central to both of their arcs. While having Sonya finish off Mileena with a display of her new arcana powers is a good moment, it’s a shame that Mileena couldn’t stick around to face off against Kitana.
Fortunately, there’s still a chance that such a duel could happen. Shang Tsung heavily implies at the end of Mortal Kombat that the dead Outworld warriors – or at least some of them – will be resurrected to fight again. That means Mileena may not be gone for good, and that she could still fight Kitana in a future film. There are a lot of exciting things Mortal Kombat 2 could do, and a battle between Mileena and Kitana is one of them.
