MK11 DLC: What Ever Happened to Ash Joining Mortal Kombat 11?

Recent entries in the Mortal Kombat series have seen some exciting characters join the roster as DLC characters. 80’s action stars like John Rambo and iconic horror characters like Jason Voorhees have found their way into the last two Mortal Kombat games. There’s one character who crosses into both horror and action genres that was heavily rumored for MK11, but seems like an afterthought at this point: Ash Williams from the Evil Dead series. Leaks and early promotional material for MK11’s first DLC pack seemed to tease Ash’s eventual inclusion in the game, but so far there aren’t any signs of Ash (or his boomstick) joining the roster any time soon.

It isn’t uncommon for rumors to circulate about a potential character joining a game as a DLC character, especially with fighting games. More often than not, these rumors are just fans reading into something a little too much, but in the case of Ash Williams in Mortal Kombat 11, there was a point where it seemed like he was almost guaranteed to be joining MK11. One month after the game’s release, a trailer highlighting Shang Tsung and the rest of MK11’s Kombat Pack 1 DLC characters ended by teasing two more characters who would be included in the bundle, accompanied by the sound of a chainsaw, Ash’s trusty weapon. Many fans saw this as a very clear nod to Ash’s potential inclusion in the DLC pack.

The rumors only got stronger from there, as several leaks seemed to confirm Ash for MK11. An email promoting MK11’s Kombat Pack 1 featured the company names and copyrights for each third-party character that would be joining the game. Among the copyrights was a line stating, “‘ASH’ character from ‘ARMY OF DARKNESS'” who still had yet to be announced. The leak that may have strengthen the Ash to MK11 rumors the most, as reported by EventHubs, was a datamine that found him in the files of the Switch version of MK11. This seemed to basically confirmed Ash’s inclusion in Mortal Kombat, but since the discovery, all mention of Ash in the files of the game have been removed, removing almost any chance of the character joining MK11.

Bruce Campbell Hints At Why Ash Isn’t Joining Mortal Kombat 11

After so much momentum had been leading towards Ash joining Mortal Kombat 11, his removal from the files of the game came almost out of nowhere. Despite the overwhelming evidence Ash was set to join MK11, the rumors stopped cold in their tracks and NetherRealm was silent on the matter, leaving fans to wonder what happened. Luckily, Ash Williams himself, Bruce Campbell, shed some light on the situation during a Q&A at a drive-in event. Campbell had previously been quick to shoot down rumors of his iconic character joining MK11, but during his drive-in Q&A, he gave a surprisingly honest response. When asked if Ash would make an appearance in MK11, Campbell responded:

The jury is still out because look, the truth is very simple. Characters are kinda owned by companies, including Ash. So, sometimes those companies aren’t allowed to loan characters between franchises because other companies go, ‘WHOA!’ then you have to make a deal if you’re gonna… it’s like loaning out Humphrey Bogart to another studio. You know? The studio makes a deal… it gets weird sometimes, so it might not happen because of legal crap.

Judging by Campbell’s response, it seems NetherRealm had plans of including Ash in one of MK11’s DLC packs, but legal issues got in the way and any traces of the character were removed from the game. This reasoning makes a lot of sense considering the Joker took Ash’s place in Kombat Pack 1. Warner Brothers owns both NetherRealm and DC Comics, so it was likely a much cleaner process getting the Clown Prince of Crime into the game rather than Ash.

Seeing as NetherRealm was clearly interested in the character, there’s a chance Ash could still join Mortal Kombat. Most third-party Mortal Kombat DLC characters are used to help promote something outside of the game, like the Terminator and the film, Terminator: Dark Fate. Seeing as there’s a new Evil Dead video game in the works, perhaps NetherRealm could help promote it by featuring Ash in Mortal Kombat 11 in the future, assuming any “legal crap” doesn’t get in the way.

Sources: EventHubs, Miles Morales/YouTube

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