Tsung." Screen Rant reported that while they felt all the main cast members were equally outstanding, Tagawa was "the best casting of the movie to many". Christopher Lambert as Lord Rayden has also received positive coverage with JoBlo.com commenting that he "lent the production maturity and star power" while CBR mentioned that he "steals every scene he appears, delivering ridiculous lines like, 'The fate of billions depends upon you,' before laughing and apologizing". Mortal Kombat 11 paid tribute to the first movie with numerous Easter eggs as well as bringing back Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa to play Shang Tsung in the "Aftermath" storyline. Subsequent downloadable content would feature voices and likeness from Christopher Lambert, Linden Ashby and Bridgette Wilson-Sampras as Raiden, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, respectively. Other media Sequel A sequel entitled Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was released in 1997. It was directed by John R. Leonetti, who was the cinematographer of the first film. Only Robin Shou and Talisa Soto reprised their roles, with the others being recast. Its storyline is largely an adaptation of Mortal Kombat 3, following Earthrealm's warriors in their battle against Shao Kahn. In contrast to its predecessor, Annihilation was critically panned and failed at the box office. As a result, development of the planned third installment halted and never progressed beyond pre-production. In July 2009, actors Chris Casamassa (Scorpion) and Linden Ashby (Johnny Cage) separately announced that they would be reprising their respective roles from the original film, with Casamassa additionally claiming that filming would begin in September of that year, but the project did not commence production. Animated film On April 11, 1995, New Line Home Video, Turner Home Entertainment and Threshold Entertainment released a tie-in animated film on VHS and Laserdisc, titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins. Serving as a prequel to the feature film, it follows the protagonists Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade as they travel on a mysterious boat to the Mortal Kombat tournament. On the way they meet Rayden, who provides them with some hints about how to survive the tournament and defeat Shang Tsung and his army of Tarkatan minions. Upon arriving at the island where the battles take place, Rayden retells the origins of Shang Tsung, Goro, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and the Great Kung Lao in between fight scenes. The film featured a combination of traditional animation, motion capture, and CGI to explain the origins behind some