The new Mortal Kombat movie takes the mythology of the games it is based on very seriously. To that end, the film features many fan-favorite fighters from the games. The character of the ninja Rain was initially rumored to be in the film. But that rumor turned out to be only sort of true. In an interview with ComicBook.com, the writer of Mortal Kombat, Greg Russo, explained that the initial script for the film that he received did include Rain, but he decided to take out the character since he felt the script did not do him justice.

"Somebody talked about that Rain had been in... And he was. He was in a script at a certain point a long time ago. First of all, I was lobbying to remove it because I felt that he wasn't... I inherited that, and I felt like he wasn't done justice. And whenever I inherited or saw anything that I didn't think was right for the fans, I was like, "Let's get that the hell out of there."

In the video games, the ninja characters started out being palette-swapped versions of the same performer. Over time, the differently colored ninjas were given specific backstories. The purple-clad Rain is provided with two origin stories, one in which he is a descendant of Argus, the protector god of Edenia, and another in which he was orphaned at a young age by Shao Kahn's conquest of Edenia, consequently being raised under the tutelage of Edenian resistance fighters

Rain was one of the handfuls of Mortal Kombat characters to be given an extensive backstory out of a roster of 70+ fighters, and it is understandable that Russo would want to do justice to Rain's backstory in a sequel rather than have him show up briefly in the first movie. According to the writer, the script for Mortal Kombat that he was initially given to work with needed to be reworked a lot in order to bring it in line with the lore from the games.

"That was a long process, was just slowly chipping away at the stuff that I felt was inaccurate or a disservice. That was just an example. Things get taken out for many different reasons. But in terms of lobbying for things and how much control I have over it, I actually have a lot. I mean, I basically picked the rosters, I guess. I chose the fighters, so to speak, and so I hope you guys like the choices."

Directed by Simon McQuoid and produced by James Wan, Mortal Kombat features an ensemble lead cast consisting of Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jackson "Jax" Bridges, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han and Sub-Zero, Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion, Max Huang as Kung Lao, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Matilda Kimber as Emily Young and Laura Brent as Allison Young. The film is now in theaters and available to stream on HBO Max. This news originated at ComicBook.