The 2021 Mortal Kombat movie put a fascinating new spin on the Mortal Kombat mythos, but at its core, it was also incredibly faithful to the video game source material with its violent brawls and glorious fatalities. Now that Shang Tsung’s plot to sabotage Earthrealm has been foiled, it’s time for the real Mortal Kombat tournament to begin. It’s all or nothing, as after nine consecutive defeats, Earthrealm has to win this competition if it wants to avoid being invaded by Outworld.

“This time, the fan favorite champions—now joined by Johnny Cage himself—are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders,” the official synopsis for the film reads.

“They keep score throughout the movie. There’s a visual representation of who is winning,” franchise co-creator Ed Boon explained to Entertainment Weekly recently. “It’s not just a tournament for the sake of a tournament. There are huge consequences, so you really are keeping score.”

Fortunately, Earthrealm has some powerful warriors on its side, including the Hollywood A-lister Johnny Cage, who’ll be joining Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Cole Young, and Jax. Across the realms, we also know that we’ll see characters like Kitana, Baraka, Shao Kahn, and Quan Chi appear in Mortal Kombat 2. Sub-Zero’s actor–more on that in a bit–Joe Taslim is also in the movie and the vengeful specter Scorpion is also present. With such a stacked roster, you can bet that there’s going to be a whole lot more blood shed in this sequel.