Mortal Kombat 11 is finally coming, and man oh man did they just announce this in the worst way possible.
Sonya Blade has been recast with Ronda Rousey as her actress, which has instantly had a massive negative reaction among trans circles. See, Ronda Rousey isn’t just a MMA fighter, but also an open TERF and a Sandy Hook Truther, aka the people who believe the Sandy Hook school shooting was staged and faked.
Keep in mind she isn’t a professional voice actress, or even much of a regular actress. Odds are good she costs more than most voice actresses. And she got the job.
I imagine this move is solely for people who don’t think super critically about their purchases, people who see “New MK” and then pay, because even if the transphobia and heinous conspiracy theory don’t bother you, you CANNOT tell me that this is better than casting an actual actress in the role.
Fuck I’m so salty about this. First WWE hire her and now this.
My only hope is that they either a) replace her as a result of the backlash (which I’m hoping there’s a massive backlash against this and it’s not just us in this thread who are annoyed/angry about this) or b) it’s only for this game. Because if she’s gonna be Sonya Blade in everything going forward, I’m just gonna be completely done with Mortal Kombat then.
I will 100% not give money to anything that Rousey is involved with. Not now, not ever.
Fuck NetherRealm for throwing trans, non-binary and gender queer fans of Mortal Kombat, like me, under the bus like this.
There’s no aspect of MMA that isn’t tainted with some form of reprehensible shit. The UFC especially is such a garbage organisation and the people it picks as its stars are invariably just as gross.
Real fucking own goal here. Rousey’s star has fallen considerably, even in circles where her remarks have gone uncriticised now that people have figured out her thing i.e. she can’t take a strike to save her life. She’s a pro-wrestler now and last time I checked that was children’s entertainment, her brand doesn’t even fit the bill.
It’s a huge own goal. Even the announcement sucked the life out of what was an amazing reveal (Biased I am towards Mortal Kombat). It’s even more puzzling when you remember they had a fantastic Sonya actress in the last game in Tricia Helfer, it doesn’t seem to be hit by the strike since they have some of the actors who were on strike like Steve Blum and Troy Baker. And Mortal Kombat is one of the few gaming franchise that has maintained mainstream cred since the early 90’s. It doesn’t need a stunt cast like this.
It’s just so puzzling that I wonder if it was something pushed at WB in exchange for promotion or they are once more playing around with the idea of a live action MK film with Rousey as one of the leads and this is just a tester (Like Midway did back in the day when there was a script for a SpyHunter film and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson attached.)
A lot of people have blind spots when it comes to her. I’ve spoken to a bunch of friends who play games and they were all caught off guard when I said I was dropping MK11 like a hot rock over her inclusion. They had no idea about any of it because they’re just generally aware of her as “the UFC fighter” and nothing else.
Now, if you’re in Netherealms/WB’s position, it’s your job to know that, so either the people making the decisions didn’t care or they were reasonably confident that this wasn’t a heavy enough albatross to weigh them down.
It makes sense that most people would not be aware of the transphobic things she said, but I am just surprised that more people wouldn’t know about her being a Sandy Hook truther.
