The film's director Simon McQuoid confirmed on Entertainment Weekly that the new MK film will indeed have "blood, gore, and fatalities." Regarding the film's rating, McQuoid said "The rules around ratings aren't what a lot of people think they are. It's amount of blood, amount of red, it's interpretation of how you go about it. We had a lot of discussions about getting the balance right." Actor Lewis Tan (Wu Assassins, Into the Badlands) plays Cole Young in the movie, a new character to the franchise.