Ed Boon is making Shaolin Monks fans nervous again

Ed Boon only needed one poll to wake up an old Mortal Kombat dream. The series co-creator asked fans which game they would want remastered first, and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks came out ahead of Mortal Kombat 9 with 52% of the vote.

That is not an announcement, and fans know better than to treat every Boon tease as a reveal. But Shaolin Monks are different. Nearly 20 years after its original release, the co-op action spin-off is still the one Mortal Kombat game players keep asking NetherRealm to bring back.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks worked because it let the series breathe outside one-on-one fighting. Instead of another tournament ladder, players fought through Outworld as Liu Kang and Kung Lao, smashing through enemies, pulling off fatalities, and turning the early Mortal Kombat story into a co-op beat ‘em up.

It still felt violent, loud, and ridiculous in the way Mortal Kombat should, but it gave fans a different way to enjoy the universe. For many players, that is why a remaster still sounds more exciting than another rerelease of a main fighting game.

Boon has brought up Shaolin Monks more than once over the years, so the excitement comes with alert. He likes testing the waters with fans, and not every poll or joke turns into a project.

The latest poll still matters because the result was close and public. Shaolin Monks beat Mortal Kombat 9 by a narrow margin, which shows Warner Bros. and NetherRealm that both games have real demand.

That split also says a lot about the fanbase. Some players want the 2011 reboot back because it reshaped modern Mortal Kombat. Others want the series to leave the arena again and return to co-op action.

NetherRealm has already said more Mortal Kombat is being pursued, and the franchise still has movie momentum, older games fans cannot easily play on modern hardware, and a long history of side projects that never reached Shaolin Monks level again.

A remaster would not need to replace the next mainline fighting game. It could give fans a smaller, nostalgia-heavy release while NetherRealm works on whatever comes next for the main series.

That is why this keeps coming back. Mortal Kombat has built decades of worlds, characters, rivalries, and villains, but most of that world is still experienced through matchups. Shaolin Monks proved the series could work when players were moving through levels together.

For now, there is no confirmed Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks remaster, remake, or sequel. Boon’s poll is a tease, not a product reveal.

Still, the message from fans is clear. If NetherRealm or Warner Bros. ever wants to bring back one older Mortal Kombat game that is not just another fighter, Shaolin Monks remains the obvious choice.