Tancharoen released a first look at the character in January 2013 by posting on Instagram an editing-room shot of Kenshi's "blinding" scene. "Legacy" fight choreographer Larnell Stovall called the Ermac/Kenshi fight a personal "geek-out moment," because "who would have thought we would see those two fight in a web series?" In a June 2013 interview with Nerd Reactor, Southworth, who said that Kenshi was his favorite "MK" character, explained that Kenshi's lack of backstory allowed him to "fill in the blanks with history," giving the character "a clan or a region that he probably came from ... and why he was rogue at the time," but neither were ever explored in the show. Southworth also said that the blindfold he wore was real and that there were "moments where I was just swinging my arms out and was hoping that it connected in the right place, or not." Like Ermac, Kenshi was given a completely black palette in the show that eliminated all traces of red from the game version of the character, with his armor replaced by a more modernized design slightly resembling tactical gear. The Sento sword itself deviated from a traditional katana in the games to the hilt being adorned with small gray skull carvings and having no hand guard.