Karl Urban Is Cage-Fighting Again in Mortal Kombat II

Karl Urban has been confirmed to be Mortal Kombat’s flamboyant, classic martial arts movie star Johnny Cage. In a new trailer for Mortal Kombat II, the actor once again flexes his natural grit-and-sweat swagger, only this time a more “meta” take on one of the franchise’s most popular and enduring fan-favorite characters. It’s a major move for the saga, and an even bigger step forward on Warner Bros.’ long-shot bid to resurrect the cult video game series as a screen success story. The thing is, Urban has the precise kind of physicality and star power needed to play a character who’s given lots of lines that are knowingly wacky and still give them the weight and energy they need.

Urban has been playing The Boys’ mercenary and faux-sociopath Billy Butcher for years now, and will no doubt be a draw for fans of his action-heavy and genre-blending work (think Star Trek, Dredd, Jane Doe), but his experience in action and mixed genres should prove key for the admittedly high bar Mortal Kombat II is setting for itself and its hero. (Urban also has experience in the Mortal Kombat franchise, having had a non-speaking role in the 2021 reboot, which was the first appearance of Cage’s eventual successor, Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan.)

But this new version of Johnny Cage is going to be a bit different from the one that we’ve seen, and heard about, in the comics and games. Sure, he’s still good at throwing punches, and there’s a lot of swagger to Urban’s performance of the character.

But while Cage is best known from the games as the supremely cool, cocky, and smirking peak-career action star, the version Urban is playing in Mortal Kombat II is a self-aware—and washed-up—take on the character that’s very much in keeping with the franchise’s current, increasingly-meta approach.

The new trailer is a follow-up to a fake teaser trailer for Uncaged Fury, a fictional 1990s Johnny Cage movie Warner Bros. also released yesterday. The VHS-quality fake trailer plays up Cage’s in-universe filmography, complete with silly, very-movie action set pieces and improbably violent martial arts moves. In-character end credits mention a host of other Cage films, like Cool Hand Cage, Hard to Cage, and Rebel Without a Cage.

Mortal Kombat II is, in addition to being a sequel to the reboot film of the same name from 2021, also a direct sequel to the 1995 Mortal Kombat, which first introduced Shang Tsung (played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), Raiden and Sonya Blade, and ended with the big surprise reveal that Johnny Cage (who had not yet been seen or introduced in the live-action series, an issue this film resolves) would be next.

The 2021 reboot film, which was directed by Simon McQuoid, was middling-reviewed and a moderately well-performing film that got a follow-up greenlit at Warner Bros. not just because of the involvement of the same director, but also because of the presence of Mortal Kombat’s most-popular character, Sub-Zero, who, this time around, will be played by Joe Taslim. (Returnees from the previous film include Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Mehcad Brooks as Jackson, and Jessica McNamee as Jax.)

With Mortal Kombat’s actor for Johnny Cage now locked, the sequel is the fourth-ever live-action Mortal Kombat movie, and the first since the original film from 1995, which will be 30 years old this year. The original live-action Mortal Kombat was a well-reviewed underperformer, but with time has since come to achieve cult-classic status (we’d see that word again with both trailers), and the long, unbreakable grasp of iconicity on Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s performance as Shang Tsung in that movie is a testament to how beloved it still is.

The follow-up to the first Mortal Kombat, 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, was not well-liked, didn’t do well at the box office, and after which the series vanished from theaters for years. Its publisher, Midway, soon after filed for bankruptcy, with Warner Bros. buying the rights later on; the road to this current Mortal Kombat reboot film has been a long one indeed.

“The mortal battle for Earthrealm’s survival is about to get a lot more personal,” the official synopsis of Mortal Kombat II reads. “The champions of Earthrealm are forced to come together – with the help of none other than Johnny Cage – to prevent Outworld’s evil Emperor Shao Kahn from completing his conquest of Earth in this ultraviolent sequel.” The film, like the first, will also feature the franchise’s signature R-rated gore, fantastical stakes, and brutally realistic violence.

Fans can bet Mortal Kombat II is likely to hew closer to the DNA of the games that made the Mortal Kombat series so special than the previous reboot did, given the casting of one of its most-beloved characters as its marquee star. (It helps Urban has experience in playing characters from beloved franchises.)

Mortal Kombat II does not yet have an official release date, but the sequel is in active production.