Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage: Fresh Take or Same Old Hero?

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Fans and spectators of the Outworld Tournament, it’s almost time for our realm to test its might once again. October’s frame on the 2025 movie schedule has a nice dragon-shaped insignia place in its heart for the long-awaited sequel Mortal Kombat 2, and that arrival will come with a pretty big Hollywood debut.

As Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage will be getting cinematic in director Simon McQuoid’s sequel, that means there’s some new blood waiting to be spilled. Celebrating EW’s release of the first look photo at The Boys vet’s new kid on the interdimensional block, video game co-creator Ed Boon was on hand, along with McQuoid, to build up the hype. Laying out what to expect from Mr. Urban’s Johnny, who was previously teased in Mortal Kombat’s ending, Boon provided this intriguing statement:

You finally get to see Johnny Cage. 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. He’s adding his own flare to it, but I think it’ll feel fresh. There’s like a novelty factor in there.

One of the OG characters fans were kind of surprised not to see in 2021’s Mortal Kombat, Mr. Cage is usually depicted as a flashy movie star with an ego as big as his name in lights will allow. Which totally explains the earlier teaser poster for Karl Urban’s variant of this honored franchise fixture.

If that was what we should have expected from the new Earthling drawn into Mortal Kombat 2’s cast by Lewis Tan’s returning hero Cole Young, that still would have been awesome. Especially since New Zealand native Urban could use his homegrown accent to mock the Australian Lawson in a fun sort of in-joke before punches fly.

Of course now that Ed Boon has promised a “different” Johnny Cage, it appears that more than just a fish out of water who isn’t sure how to spell “Shao Kahn” in autographs. That doesn’t mean he won’t jokingly offer Kano his sunglasses with a crack about a “killer glare,” especially since we’re used to seeing the Lord of the Rings star on the other side of the eye lasers.

But as you’ll read in what Mortal Kombat 2 director Simon McQuoid had to say, that’s not all:

We wanted a character that wasn’t just completely silly, comic book…It’s a character that could instantly go there and become too light and throwaway if we were to lean too much into the kind of cheese. The casting of Karl Urban for that role allowed that character to have more depth.

Though we’ve sat with the news for some time, Mortal Kombat 2’s Johnny Cage casting feels just a little more special after getting this new information. As anyone who’s watched Karl Urban on The Boys will tell you, the man behind Billy Butcher can still flash a gleeful smile while preparing to decimate the competition.

So anyone afraid of too much humor manifesting in a brawl such as this shouldn’t fret too hard just yet. Following in the footsteps of how the first picture evolved Hiroyuki Sanada’s Scorpion, the future of Johnny Cage could find us being a little more emotionally invested.

As both Josh Lawson and Karl Urban would be able to dial their respective personalities up or down to the point where their sparring partner can shine, this could be the match to watch. We’ll see soon enough when Mortal Kombat 2 lands in theaters on October 24th, though here’s hoping this new chatter means the first trailer is on the way.

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2025-03-18 02:12