With DC Comic’s Joker being released in Mortal Kombat 11 on January 28, fans of the long-running fighting game series have taken to imagining what the character would look like in other guises; most notably his red-jacketed look from 2019’s Joker, a film that just gathered up 11 Oscar nominations. However, Australian artist Kode A. (who also goes by Nikolai Baslajik and, most commonly, BossLogic online) has decided to take things a step further by imagining what it would look like if Geralt of Rivia joined as an entirely new character in the future.
Joker is the fifth DLC character in Mortal Kombat 11’s first Kombat Pack, and will be followed up by Spawn from the Image Comics’ series of the same name in March. From there the possibilities of who might join the cast in further DLC or in a new installment are limitless, and The Witcher’s protagonist Geralt is an arguably reasonable bet for inclusion.
BossLogic’s take on the character, which has garnered thousands of likes on various social media sites since being posted yesterday, is very reminiscent of Henry Cavill from The Witcher Netflix series that has taken the Internet by storm, particularly through memes (with even Elon Musk commenting on its earworm “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher”), since its release on December 20, 2019.
Cavill’s face is undoubtedly the one a general populace would recognize given Netflix’s wide reach, and given his involvement in updating fans about production starting on season two.
However Geralt of Rivia the character has a much longer history in popular culture, from the original Witcher novels in the 90s to video games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. In fact he even has a history with fighting games, having duked it out in Bandai Namco’s Soulcalibur VI from 2018.
General speculation about the direction Mortal Kombat 11 will take in 2020 says the game will likely have a second wave of DLC in light of its popular in fighting game circles. Whether or not that Kombat Pack roster would include The Witcher’s ever-more popular leading man is ultimately up to NetherRealm Studios, but those imposing yellow eyes in BossLogic’s art make a good argument in Geralt’s favor.
Mortal Kombat 11 is out now for PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, Switch, and Xbox One.
