First of short series to debut on Machinima.com next week, one week before next game in franchise launches.

It looks like April will be a busy month for Mortal Kombat fans. On April 19, the latest game in the series, titled simply Mortal Kombat, will debut on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The eagerly awaited next installment in the franchise–which just went gold–will see the return of the gruesome fatalities and hardcore violence that the series is known for.

Now, it appears that the prior week will also have something new for Mortal Kombat fans. Hadoken.net reports that at 4 p.m. PDT next Tuesday, Machinima.com will stream the first episode of a live-action series of shorts based on the Mortal Kombat universe.

The event will apparently be available via the network’s YouTube channel, on a page currently marked as private. However, the screening was tacitly confirmed by series director Kevin Tancharoen via his tweet.

The live-action series, first teased via an eight-minute film released last June, features a reimagined Mortal Kombat universe and will feature such characters as Reptile, Baraka, and Sonya. It will be produced by Warner Bros., which is also publishing the game.

The company promised that the series will “take gamers deep into the history of warriors they know and love such as Scorpion, Johnny Cage, and Liu Kang.” Black Dynamite and Spawn star Michael Jai White will reportedly play Jackson “Jax” Briggs in the series.