Mortal Kombat 2 reveals Karl Urban as Johnny Cage in first look
The ending of 2021's Mortal Kombat set the stage for the franchise's next chapter: Hollywood. After a brutal battle between Earthrealm and Outworld champions, former MMA fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan), a descendant of Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada), headed to Los Angeles in search of a new recruit—Johnny Cage.
A prominent and eccentric character from the video games, as well as past movie adaptations, Johnny was only teased in that first film through a poster for his Citizen Cage flick. But now, The Boys star Karl Urban officially takes his place alongside other Earthrealm champions in Entertainment Weekly's exclusive first look at the sequel, Mortal Kombat 2, coming to theaters and IMAX locations on Oct. 24, News.Az reports, citing The Entertainment Weekly.
"You finally get to see Johnny Cage," Ed Boon, Mortal Kombat co-creator and head of gaming developer NetherRealm Studios, tells EW. "His integration into the Mortal Kombat story and universe is a big part of what this movie explores. He's a washed-up Hollywood guy thrown into this magical, ultra-violent thing. Karl, his depiction of Johnny Cage is different than our games in some ways. He's adding his own flare to it, but I think it'll feel fresh. There's like a novelty factor in there."
Just like Tan's Cole in the first Mortal Kombat, Boon says Johnny serves as the audience's lens into this new story. He calls the character's introduction "ridiculously hilarious," having incited "some of the biggest laughs" from the early screenings of Mortal Kombat 2. But director Simon McQuoid felt it was a balancing act to strike that tone. "We wanted a character that wasn't just completely silly, comic book...It's a character that could instantly go there and become too light and throwaway if we were to lean too much into the kind of cheese," McQuoid remarks. "The casting of Karl Urban for that role allowed that character to have more depth."
Johnny isn't the only new character on the scene, either. Joining Mortal Kombat veterans like Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Mehcad Brooks as Jackson "Jax" Briggs, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, and Sanada (fresh off his Shōgun Emmy wins) as Scorpion, EW can also reveal Adeline Rudolph (Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Netflix's Resident Evil series) as fan-favorite (emphasis on "fan") Kitana, as well as Martyn Ford (House of David, Those About to Die) as Outworld overlord Shao Kahn.
As an added treat for gamers, new movie-accurate skins of these characters, including Urban's Johnny, Rudolph's Kitana, and Ford's Shao Kahn, are coming to the Mortal Kombat 1 video game later this year.
In the movie, these figures are all here for the main event, the one fans have been waiting to see realized on screen. The first film saw the Outworld sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Hang) and his forces attempt to wipe out Earth's champions before the big Mortal Kombat tournament between fighters from different realms. That tournament is now officially here in the sequel, and the stakes couldn't be higher. If Earthrealm loses its 10th consecutive tournament against Outworld, then Shao Kahn will invade Earth and take over.
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