Cage’s Comeback: Mortal Kombat II Introduces a Washed-Up Hero

Karl Urban won’t be fighting crime as the Boys’ Butcher. He will, however, be stepping into the stylish shades of Johny Cage for 2025’s Mortal Kombat II. The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek veteran will portray the popular, if smarmy, martial arts movie star from the long-running video game series. Mortal Kombat II is set to follow Warner Bros.’ 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot, and it will be the fourth live-action feature film in the series since the original Mortal Kombat hit theaters in 1995.

The trailer’s clever release was timed one day after Warner Bros. released a fake in-universe trailer for Uncaged Fury, a painfully 90s-style action film “starring” Johnny Cage. That trailer was an in-joke meta-reference to Cage’s other fake movie credits. Spoiler alert: it’s all fake. There’s Cool Hand Cage, Hard to Cage, and Rebel Without a Cage, to name a few.

2025 will also mark 30 years since the original live-action Mortal Kombat movie. The 1995 film was critically trashed by film critics upon its release, but did a successful enough box office business to get a sequel and develop a cult following in the years since. Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa’s portrayal of the sorcerer Shang Tsung is the standard to which many measure to this day. Its only sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, released in 1997, was a larger critical and box office flop. The game’s publisher, Midway, also went bankrupt soon after. When Warner Bros. bought the rights from then-defunct Midway, the studio enlisted Simon McQuoid to direct a reboot over two decades after the original. The result was the 2021 Mortal Kombat. That film introduced Lewis Tan’s Cole Young, an MMA fighter thrust into the fight for Earthrealm. Reviews were mixed for the film, but it did well enough at the box office to get a sequel greenlit. McQuoid will return to direct. The first film concluded with Young heading to Los Angeles to find Johnny Cage. His introduction in the new film will set up the rest of the story in Mortal Kombat II.

The official synopsis for Mortal Kombat II assumes its audience saw the first film. In it, the champions, along with Cage, fight in an all-out, no-holds-barred effort to keep Shao Kahn from conquering the realm of Earth. The entire existence of Earthrealm is at stake.

The cast from the 2021 film is returning to include 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 new additions to the cast as new fighters include Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Damon Herriman, who voiced Kabal in the last film, 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 film’s trailer also gives viewers an introduction to a self-aware Cage that sets the tone for his character in the film. The first shot of Cage is in a bar when a fan approaches him. “I loved Citizen Cage as a kid,” the man gushes to Cage. “They should do a reboot!” Cage fires back, exuding bitterness that his career as an action star has seemingly fallen. “Nobody wants that because that s–t died in the 1990s,” he sneers back.

Enter Lord Raiden and Sonya Blade, who interrupt the former action star to give Cage news that he “has been chosen to fight.” Cage assumes the duo are but two overzealous fans, until he is whisked away to anotherworldly ring to fight in what’s described as a “fighting tournament to the death.” Cage is predictably reluctant about the whole situation. “F— that,” he mutters.

Cage also tells them that he “has no powers,” before quipping that “I’m just incredibly handsome.” He ultimately relents when he learns the fate of Earthrealm is at stake, though he does ask that his opponents “please don’t hurt my face.” From there, the trailer is very much what Mortal Kombat fans are anticipating. It’s gory and over-the-top with all of the stylized moves the game fans have come to expect, finishers and all. Classic catchphrases like Scorpion’s “Get over here!” are met with expected groans from their targets, and the fight to the death is indeed no-holds-barred, with an unabashed, gleeful violence on full display.

The film appears to know it’s for fans of the game, but it also sets up to skewer itself with a self-aware Cage. Whether that’s enough to make it work as a commercial endeavor remains to be seen, but the sequel is not letting the over-the-top spectacle hang back.

Mortal Kombat II will be in theaters on October 24, 2025.