Following the official first look at Karl Urban Johnny Cage in the live-action Mortal Kombat 2 movie, more details on the film, its characters, and the high stakes for EarthRealm have been revealed. 2021’s Mortal Kombat set the stage for an Outworld invasion, and after EarthRealm’s chosen fighters successfully defeated Shang Tsung and his forces, the sequel will see them clash with Emperor Shao Kahn’s forces in a tournament to decide the fate of the realms.
As mentioned above, Johnny Cage is a new face in the EarthRealm crowd, and he’ll be the point-of-view character in the sequel. While the current Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat games is primarily played as a former A-list action star who can’t stop making movie references, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon says that the new live-action incarnation will feel “fresh” in several ways.
Our ‘Mortal Kombat 2’ exclusive first look reveals Johnny Cage, Kitana, Shao Kahn, and Scorpion’s return. ‘What I realized was go bigger, go bolder, don’t hold back,’ director Simon McQuoid tells EW. https://t.co/tHSSHgTKNw
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) March 17, 2025
“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,” Boon said to Entertainment Weekly. “He’s adding his own flare to it, but I think it’ll feel fresh. There’s like a novelty factor in there.”
Other newcomers in Mortal Kombat 2 include Adeline Rudolph (Netflix’s Resident Evil series) as Princess Kitana, Damon Herriman (Better Man) as NetherRealm sorcerer Quan Chi, and Martyn Ford (Those About to Die) as Shao Kahn. They’ll be joining Ludi Lin, Lewis Tan, Mehcad Brooks, Jessica McNamee, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada, Josh Lawson, and Max Huang, who are all reprising their roles from the first film.
Huang and Lawson–who played Kung Lao and Kano, respectively–met grisly ends in Mortal Kombat, but Boon teased that the existing lore of Mortal Kombat gave the two fan-favorite characters a backdoor to come back from the dead. Boon also teased a few twists in the story, and director Simon McQuiod said that filming certain scenes in IMAX allowed the film to be even “bolder” than the first movie. “What I realized was go bigger, go bolder, don’t hold back, and really feed off the history of Mortal Kombat more,” McQuoid said. “Just let it rip, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Mortal Kombat 2 will hit theaters on October 24, and as an added bonus for fans of the video game source material, new movie-accurate skins of Johnny Cage, Princess Kitana, and Shao Kahn will be added later this year to Mortal Kombat 1.
