Next film in the franchise will take place long before the events of the first two, and feature a new, and unlikely hero.
Moviehole.com reports that the forthcoming Mortal Kombat 3 will be a prequel, and will NOT feature any of the original cast including Robin Shou who portrayed Lui Kang in the first two films. With the departure of the original cast, and the film set long before the others, it begs the question of “who will be the hero?” well, that question has been answered. The hero of Mortal Kombat 3 will be none other than...
Sub-Zero.
Actor Robin Shou confirms this by saying “Apparently, Sub-Zero will be the new hero. How’d that come about? Nobody knows. As if my character never existed. The story supposedly takes place before Lui Kangs time. A prequel of prequel” The Unofficial Mortal Kombat 3 Page quoted Shou as saying. “I haven’t read the script but the word out there was… bad. I guess that’s why it’s taking this long for it to happen. I guess the main reason was that the producer didn’t want pay the original casts their regular fee so by taking out all of the original characters, replacing with new characters, so they could hire unknown actors for a cheaper price. That’s showbiz."
Still no word on whether or not actor Keith Cooke, who portrayed Sub-Zero in both films will reprise his role.