Mortal Kombat 2: Karl Urban in final talks to play Johnny Cage

According to The Wrap, The Boys star Karl Urban is in final talks to play Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2.

The fan-favourite character is an action movie star and martial artist who first appeared in the original Mortal Kombat game released in 1992. Although Johnny Cage didn’t appear in the recent Mortal Kombat movie, a post-credit scene teased that he would be on his way. Mortal Kombat 2 will once again be directed by Simon McQuoid, with Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight) writing the script. Production is expected to start this June in Australia.

Karl Urban recently wrapped on the fourth season of The Boys, and if the Johnny Cage deal closes, he will be adding yet another big franchise under his belt. He played Éomer in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Siberius Vaako in the Riddick series, Dr. Leonard McCoy in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek franchise, and Skurge the Executioner in Thor: Love and Ragnarok; hell, he even made a cameo as a stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The dude gets around.

Although Mortal Kombat‘s reception was quite mixed, those behind the scenes know that there’s a lot of room for improvement. ScreenwriterJeremy Slater has said that they’re viewing the Mortal Kombat sequel as “the chance to take everything that worked in the first one and do it even better and give the audience even more, and make something that is just incredibly satisfying, and really exciting, and unpredictable.” Slater added that he wants to make the Mortal Kombat sequel that no one is expecting, one that can sneak in and “blow everyone away.“

Lewis Tan played Cole Young in the first Mortal Kombat movie, a new character who had some mysterious ties to the series’ mythology, and he’s previously expressed hope that the sequel will be bigger and bloodier. “There are so many storylines,” Tan said. “It’s very complex; there are so many characters. It’s a hard one to get done in a two-hour period or an hour and a half. Hopefully, they can make the sequel a little bit longer and we can explore more characters and more themes, and just make it even bloodier and even bigger than the first one. That’s our plan.”

Do you think Karl Urban will make a good Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2?