resurrected by the necromancer Quan Chi as undead revenant slaves. The undead Kabal returns in Mortal Kombat X (2015) as a non-playable character with a minor role in the story's plot. Kabal returned as a playable character in Mortal Kombat 11 (2019). In the game's story mode, the present Kabal remains a revenant and serves the keeper of time Kronika. After she causes a time anomaly as part of her plan to eliminate Raiden from history, she brings a past version of Kabal who was still aligned with the Black Dragon to the present. He subsequently joins Kano, who manipulates him into fighting Sonya Blade by falsely claiming she was responsible for scarring him in the future. Character design and gameplay Kabal was nicknamed "Sandman" during the production of Mortal Kombat 3 before his actual name was determined. According to Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias, Kabal's overall design was inspired by the Tusken Raiders from Star Wars, while the circular lenses of his mask were inspired by 1940s-style aviator goggles. The developers had also been interested at the possibility of introducing a character with a disability into the series. Kabal was originally given wrist-mounted buzzsaw blades as his primary weapon before his familiar hookswords, while Boon cited his favorite comic book character as a youth, Flash, as the inspiration for Kabal's "Tornado" move, which dizzied opponents and set them up for a free hit. According to Boon, Kabal was overpowered enough in MK3 in regards to his special moves that the developers had to tone him down in future updates. In Deception and onward, Kabal is seen with a long, sleeveless trenchcoat and a backpack (with antenna) that supported his breathing apparatus, the former which Midway had been forced to omit from MK3 due to memory limitations and the potential problem of the movement of the coat interfering with gameplay. A pre-scarred Kabal was to be included in the 2000 spin-off title Mortal Kombat: Special Forces as a boss character, but he was cut from the game after it underwent many last-minute changes due to time constraints exacerbated by the sudden departure of Tobias from Midway. Kabal's masked face was the only telltale sign of his wounds in his series appearances up until the reboot, which now conspicuously featured the grotesque imagery of his charred skin. In an interview with Spike TV in March 2011 that revealed the first look