- calendar_today September 3, 2025
Mortal Kombat II Heats Up with Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage Debut
The Boys star Karl Urban will don shades and leave behind the coat of a Butcher in his next film, Mortal Kombat II. The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek alum is repping Johnny Cage, the egotistical martial arts film actor who’s been a fan favorite throughout the long-running video game franchise. Mortal Kombat II, which Warner Bros. has not yet formally announced as a full-blown sequel, will be based on the second entry in the Mortal Kombat game series and will be the fourth live-action film set in that universe since the first one hit in 1995.
This is another example of a perfectly timed release from the studio, as that trailer dropped just one day after Warner Bros. also released a fake in-universe trailer for Uncaged Fury, a cheesy-looking action blockbuster that pays homage to the Cannonsploitation films of the ’90s in style and feel, which also stars Johnny Cage. It was presented as Cage’s return to theaters after an absence of two decades, with fake throwbacks to other Cannonsploitation classics in the vein of The Last Dragon that he had starred in over the years, like Cool Hand Cage, Hard to Cage, and Rebel Without a Cage.
2025 will also mark the 30th anniversary of the first live-action Mortal Kombat movie, a laughably bad film in retrospect that nonetheless opened to strong business upon release and has since gone on to develop a cult following over the years. Even to this day, fans widely consider Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa’s performance as the sorcerer Shang Tsung to be one of the best depictions of the character of all time. 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the first film’s supposed sequel, was a critical and commercial disaster, after which the game’s publisher, Midway, eventually went bankrupt.
By the time Warner Bros. acquired the rights, Simon McQuoid was hired to direct the reboot, which arrived more than 20 years after the release of the first film. Lewis Tan’s Cole Young, an MMA fighter, was introduced to audiences in 2021, and while he had no prior connection to the Mortal Kombat game franchise, he’s suddenly been thrown into the middle of an ongoing battle to save Earthrealm. The film received mixed reviews but had enough of a financial performance for Warner Bros. to greenlight a sequel, once again to be directed by McQuoid. The first film ended with Cole Young traveling to Los Angeles in order to recruit Johnny Cage, which is presumably where Mortal Kombat II will pick up.
Familiar Faces and B-Roll-Rattling Finishes
As a brief reminder, the official synopsis for Mortal Kombat II is written with the assumption that fans have already seen the first film. This time around, all the champions (now including Johnny Cage) have to compete in an open “fighting tournament to the death” to stop Shao Kahn from finally succeeding at invading Earthrealm. That could not be much clearer, as the synopsis also points out that Earthrealm’s existence itself is on the line.
The first film’s cast is expected to return, including Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han/Noob Saibot (a.k.a. Sub-Zero), Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Josh Lawson as Kano, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Mehcad Brooks as Jax Briggs, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, and Max Huang as Kung Lao.
The sequel’s new fighters are Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Damon Herriman, who voiced Kabal in the last film, is now onscreen as Quan Chi, Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn, CJ Bloomfield as Baraka, Desmond Chiam as King Jerrod, and Ana Thu Nguyen as Queen Sindel.
The trailer is a loud, over-the-top affair that both celebrates and parodies the fact that Mortal Kombat is primarily an excuse to watch a series of one-on-one deathmatches between costumed fighters across fictionalized versions of the different realms in which they live, die, and respawn. The action is as needlessly brutal and gory as always, though it’s heavily stylized, to be sure. Fighting styles, signature finishing moves, the game’s exaggerated character designs, and catchphrases (“Get over here!”) all get referenced in the brief preview. It also features Cage receiving his in-movie introduction, including a reference to the past popularity of his action films, which helps explain why he’s eager to get involved in the first place.
After being recognized by a fan in a rundown bar, the brash Cage—who, one gets the sense, is down on his luck and his career and thus has developed a bit of a chip on his shoulder about the whole thing—says, “Nobody wants that. That whole franchise died in the ’90s.” Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano) and Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) show at the bar, inform Cage, “You have been chosen to fight,” and the trailer then provides a sneak peek at Cage’s entrance into the game’s universe.
The heroes are soon in a different, otherworldly setting, and the tournament Cage was just informed he’s being forced to compete in is described as a “fighting tournament to the death.” He’s not having it. “F— that,” Cage says. After he points out he’s missing the superpowers all the other competitors possess, Cage says, “I’m just incredibly handsome,” but then revises his decision to not take part in the competition upon learning Earthrealm’s very existence is at stake, though he does request that his opponents not hurt my face.”
Warner Bros. is betting on the violent spectacle in the film as well as all the jokes at tits expense of itself to help it find an audience, though whether or not the film will have much crossover appeal beyond the devoted fanbase remains to be seen. Fans of the first Mortal Kombat film should be prepared for a harsh reboot. Mortal Kombat II will arrive in theaters on October 24, 2025.
