The final rounds of conversation are wrapping up. If all goes well, it seems that Karl Urban will star as Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2. The sequel to New Line Cinema’s 2021 film is getting underway, and fans couldn’t be more excited. While the first entry in the series did stray from the conventional Mortal Kombat story, it did a very good job at setting up various classic characters, as well as introducing some new ones, like Cole Young, the hero of the movie who had never appeared in a previous Mortal Kombat game.
Karl Urban is perhaps most famous for his portrayal of Billy Butcher in the hit Amazon series The Boys. He’s also been prominently featured in the recent Star Trek movies as the younger version of Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy. He was also the star of the much beloved Dredd reboot from 2012. Urban’s played a number of other characters, after getting his first big Hollywood role in 2002’s Ghost Ship.
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Johnny Cage himself is an interesting character. He’s largely based around Jean-Claude Van Damme… specifically Van Damme’s performance in 1988’s Bloodsport. While he often serves as comic relief in the games, he’s also an extremely skilled martial artist. The character is a Hollywood action star, who gets noticed as one of Earth’s greatest fighters. As a result, Raiden enlists him to defend “Earthrealm” against the forces of “Outworld” in the Mortal Kombat tournament. Johnny and his allies then take on baddies such as Goro, Shang Tsung, and eventually, the emperor of Outworld himself, Shao Kahn.
Mortal Kombat 2 will be produced by James Wan, Todd Garner, Simon McQuoid, and E. Bennett Walsh.
