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In the fall of 2021, just weeks after Mortal Kombat opened in theaters, director Simon McQuoid created a document examining what the movie did right, what it could have done better, and what he wanted in a sequel. Among his dream characters: Baraka, the sharp-toothed mutant from the games.

The character is now among the highlights of Mortal Kombat II, which has grossed $65 million globally since its May 8 launch. Baraka’s fight with Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) is one of the movie’s centerpieces, bringing humor to the proceedings, and he also returns for the film’s coda.

Making it all happen took months of planning. McQuoid struggled to find the right actor to play the role — someone with the imposing size but who could also nail Baraka’s mix of humor, violence and sweetness.

“I’m looking at all these different tapes and everyone’s just playing it [straight]. It just doesn’t feel otherworldly. The longer we went, I’m thinking, ‘It’s gonna be really hard,’” says McQuoid.

Luckily, assistant director P.J. Voeten had just filmed Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and remembered of actor CJ Bloomfield, who had a small role as a member of Chris Hemsworth’s biker gang. Bloomfield came in for an audition and nailed it on the first try.

Next, McQuoid and his team spent months developing the signature fight scene at the Tarkatan village, in which Johnny Cage mouths off to Baraka.

“I wanted it to feel like a society that has lived there for a long time and has their rituals,” says McQuoid of building the set practically, and even including Tarkatan children, something that is not in the game.

He also wanted to lean into the humor, something that McQuoid got Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon’s blessing on. “I said, ‘You sort of gotta trust me, Ed, that I think we can balance that,” he recalls.

While McQuoid blocked out the dramatic scenes with assistant director Voeten and cinematographer Stephen Winden, the stunt team, led by Kyle Gardiner, worked out the fight, using cardboard boxes to re-create set designer Yohei Taneda’s Tarkatan village at the parking lot at Village Roadshow headquarters in Australia.

Those weeks of prep work meant there was no second guessing when they arrived on set to shoot, which required hours in the makeup chair for Bloomfield.

“There’s much less waste, and you can put more on screen,” McQuoid says. “When the actors arrived, I wanted them to completely immerse themselves in what they’re going to be wearing and have conversations around their character.”

One of McQuoid’s favorite shots in the movie is of a little Tarkatan girl, whom the camera follows through the village to show the audience its scope. “It took us like 17 takes or something with a bit of gear called the Trinity, which is a very sophisticated Steadicam,” he notes.

All in, the team took three days to shoot the fight. Along the way, the actors contributed their own ideas.

“Karl’s very good at improv and added lines like, ‘Not the face,’ and ‘I got Saturn for the best fight,’” recalls McQuoid.

The actors did much of the fighting themselves, while Urban’s stunt double, Garreth Hadfield, performed other aspects, training for months on wires to perfect the twirl in the air, followed by the trademark split nut-punch. (Hadfield also played Cage in countless videos the stunt team created to develop the fight.)

The movie ends with Johnny regaling Baraka with tales of his heroism. Screenwriter Jeremy Slater had something similar, but after seeing the chemistry between the characters, he shifted to focus even more on them.

Says McQuoid: “Once Karl and CJ had developed this lovely relationship, it helped us then go, ‘OK, I know what we need to do.’ It sort of just fell off the truck.”