Kitana (Mortal Kombat) - in Other Media

In Other Media

Kitana was one of the characters featured in the 1995 stage show Mortal Kombat: Live Tour, played by Lexi Alexander (credited as "Lexi Mirai") and Jennifer DeCosta. Kitana also appears as a secondary character in Malibu's 1994-1995 Mortal Kombat comic books. She was the subject of the special issue "Kitana and Mileena: Sister Act", in which her backstory is revealed as slightly altered in comparison to the MKII canon story. In the comic books, Kitana is the princess of Edenia and daughter of Jerrod and Sindel, but she was already an adult when Shao Kahn killed Jerrod and seized the realm, putting her under a spell that made her forget her past life and believe she is Kahn's daughter. Kitana first appeared during the "Goro: Prince of Pain" story arc, joining Mileena, Baraka and Reptile in search for Goro in Outworld. During the "Battlewave" miniseries, she attempts to rebel against Kahn with the assistance of Kung Lao, Baraka and Sub-Zero. Unlike in the game series' continuity, in the comic series Kitana has no interactions with neither Liu Kang nor Jade. Instead, she has a closer relation with Kung Lao (Shang Tsung even attempts to exploit this while taking Kitana's form). She re-appears in Midway's stand-alone Mortal Kombat 4 prologue comic book published in 1997, in which she is arranges peace between the Shokan and Centaurian races, and in the game tie-in title Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe: Beginnings, drawn by Tobias and published by DC Comics in 2008.

Despite being a major character in the video games' storyline, Princess Kitana was only a supporting character in both Mortal Kombat live-action films. In the movies, Kitana was portrayed by the 28-year-old Talisa Soto, appearing unmasked and wearing less revealing, all-black costumes (including a long formal dress). In the first film, released in 1995, Kitana is introduced as a companion of Shang Tsung, but eventually joins Liu Kang and the Earthrealm warriors to help them defeat the sorcerer. In the 1995 novel Mortal Kombat by Martin Delrio, an expanded novelization of the first film, Kitana is introduced in a new new scene, in which she is described as dressed in "scarlet-red silk stitched all around with a golden thread." Shang Tsung also tells Goro that Kitana "alone keeps alive the memory" of Edenia before Kahn's conquest and "uses her age and her position as a shield to cover her rebellion." Kitana spends most of the 1997 sequel film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation in Kahn's capivity, captured by Scorpion, before facing Sindel during the final battle. Kitana's steel folding fans (for the first time redesigned into several blades on each one, instead of solid all-metal fans) briefly appear as her weapon in the second film. In the films, Kitana does engage in a romantic relationship with Liu Kang, but her Edenian background, prior loyalty to Kahn, and relations with Mileena and Jade were ignored in both pictures in which she was instead described simply as being the rightful heir to the Outworld's throne.

Kitana is one of the lead characters in the 1996 television animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, roughly based on the movie version of the MK universe, in which she did again appear unmasked even if clad in a black-blue leotard-type outfit reminiscent of the one she wore in MKII, and was voiced by Cree Summer. Similar to the films, she is never shown to have ever been loyal to Kahn in the cartoon. In the episode "Skin Deep", a male ninja character Rain is introduced as her former love interest turned enemy. The series' finale involved Kitana leading a rebellion from Outworld against Shao Kahn's rule.

Kitana made several appearances in the non-canonical prequel live-action television series Mortal Kombat: Konquest (1998–1999), her role shared by the 27-year-old Audie England (the episodes "Vengeance" and "Shadow of a Doubt") and by Dara Tomanovich (in "The Essence"), with Christine Rodriguez being their stunt double. In this series, she is fully aware of her Edenian past and the deaths of her parents at Kahn's hands, clandestinely working with the Great Kung Lao to prevent the Emperor from conquering realms while at the same time feigning her allegiance to him. Her outfit and weapon are resembling these she has in the films, but she uses her native Edenian fighting style which she had mastered already before Shao Kahn's invasion and which was suplemented with various moves that she learnt from prisoners of her stepfather. The Konquest version of Mileena is neither her clone nor a sister, and Rain appears as her former best friend. In the series' abrupt finale (due to the show's cancellation, as it was supposed to continue further for a next season after a cliffhanger ending), Kitana appears to die, after she was reluctantly ordered by Shao Kahn to be killled for her plots of treason against him. She is attacked by three Shadow Priests, and one of them uses Kitana's own fan against her.

A young Kitana appears in the 2011 prequel live-action webisode series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, played in her first acting role by a 20-year-old martial artist and stuntwoman Samantha Jo (credited as Sam Tjhia), a self-professed Kitana fan who said she did research "to get on the same page" with other fans to see how they perceive the character while preparing for the role. Kitana's origin story is told in part-live and part-animated episode "Kitana & Mileena", which is a fable-like, altered adaptation of their backstory from the original game series' canon. In a notable difference, her mother, Sindel, used a ritual so her soul fused with Kitana's in hopes to avoid Shao Khan's corruption before committing suicide. Kitana appears both masked (only in the animated scenes) and unmasked, and bests Mileena in a fierce sparring match. When the young sisters are sent by Shao Kahn to assassinate the man who is really King Jerrod, Kitana's biological father who is then killed by Mileena, Kitana eventually learns the truth after her past and decides to turn against Shao Kahn in the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament. The episode was nominated by the Writers Guild of America Award in the category "Outstanding Achievement in Writing Derivative New Media". Kitana was confirmed to return for the second season of Legacy in 2013.