Here’s a first look at Homelander and Peacemaker in Mortal Kombat 1

NetherRealm Studios finally made it official on Friday: Homelander from The Boys, Peacemaker from the DC Universe, and Omni-Man from Invincible will appear as guest characters in Mortal Kombat 1 as part of the game’s first Kombat Pack DLC. Those characters will be joined by Mortal Kombat veterans Quan Chi, Ermac, and Takeda.

The developers of Mortal Kombat 1 revealed a sneak peek at the Kombat Pack lineup at San Diego Comic-Con, where other characters were confirmed for the fighting game: Tanya, Li Mei, Baraka, Darrius, and Khameleon.

Homelander will be based on actor Antony Starr’s appearance in The Boys television series, while Peacemaker will be based on John Cena’s look from the Max series created by James Gunn. Actor J.K. Simmons will reprise his role for Omni-Man, voicing the character in MK1 “so it’s as authentic as it’s going to be,” Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon said in an interview at SDCC 2023 this weekend.

Here’s a closer look at those characters, but be forewarned that the following video does not show the highly anticipated alternate Jean-Claude Van Damme skin for Johnny Cage:

Invincible creator Robert Kirkman said in an interview that he’d been “backchanneling Ed Boon” for years to try to get one of his creations in a Mortal Kombat game. The series is close to Kirkman’s heart, he said: “There’s Mortal Kombat in the DNA of everything that I’ve done.”

MK1’s Kombat Pack is included with the premium and collector’s edition versions of the game, which launches this September. Omni-Man will be the first character released as part of the DLC, Boon said.

The Mortal Kombat series’ roster of guest characters has typically been incredibly varied, leaning on comic book, action movie, and horror film villains and antiheroes to flesh out its lineup. The previous game in the franchise, Mortal Kombat 11, featured John Rambo, RoboCop, the Terminator T-800, Spawn, and The Joker as guest fighters. Past games have featured God of War’s Kratos, Alien’s Xenomorph, and Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees as playable characters.

Mortal Kombat 1 will be released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Sept. 19.

Update (July 24): This story has been updated with additional details from an interview with Ed Boon and Robert Kirkman published by Skybound on its YouTube channel.