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Gizmodo
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
The First Trailer for ‘Mortal Kombat II' Is a Johnny Cage-Filled Extravaganza
Warner Bros. has finally unveiled the new trailer for Mortal Kombat II, the sequel to its 2021 video game adaptation. It stars Karl Urban as B-movie star Johnny Cage, and the character is front and center in this new clip. The sequel film, whose title is likely to cause further confusion among fighting game fans, on top of the damage already caused by game developer NetherRealm Studios, was first announced in 2022. The trailer aims to put viewers right back in the middle of the gory action. In contrast to the first film, which saw an original character fight alongside and against series mainstays, Mortal Kombat II will center more on its titular to-the-death martial arts tournament. 'They keep score throughout the movie,' Ed Boon, co-creator of Mortal Kombat, told Entertainment Weekly. 'There's a visual representation of who is winning… It's not just a tournament for the sake of a tournament. There are huge consequences, so you really are keeping score. And there are a lot of twists in it that keep you on your toes.' Characters fortunate enough to not be fatalities returning to the fray from the first film include Cole Young (Lewis Tan), Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada), Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Jax (Mehcad Brooks), and Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), as well as Kano (Josh Lawson) and Kung Lao (Max Huang). While the last two were very much killed in the first film, they're somehow back. Undoubtedly, Mortal Kombat II will explain the strange appearances of characters, particularly through the cinematic introduction of revenants—undead versions of deceased fighters. Joining the fight are Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), and—as mentioned—Johnny Cage (Karl Urban). In contrast to the previous film, which followed Young's journey, Mortal Kombat II shifts focus to make Cage a central figure. Time will tell whether the new-wave Mortal Kombat II will eat the lunch of video game competitor Street Fighter, which also appears to be assembling its killer lineup of Hollywood actors. Mortal Kombat II is slated to release October 24. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mortal Kombat 2 director teases the return of characters that were killed in the first movie: "There are ways to bring dead characters back"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. As the first look at Karl Urban's Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2 just dropped, we also got another big update about the upcoming sequel. The confirmed cast includes two returning stars, Josh Lawson and Max Huang, even though their characters, Kano and Kung Lao, were killed in the 2021 movie. Ed Boon, Mortal Kombat co-creator and head of gaming developer NetherRealm Studios, teased the surprising return of these characters during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, and offered a mysterious explanation. "I can say Josh Lawson doesn't play Kano's twin," Boon clarified, while pointing at the Mortal Kombat lore from the video games to argue how this storyline could make sense in the story. "We've killed a number of characters who are in Mortal Kombat 1 and our latest games. So we deal with spirits and the NetherRealm and things like that. There are ways to bring dead characters back," he added. Along with Lawson's Kano and Huang's Lao, Mortal Kombat 2 features the return of Lewis Tan's Cole Young, Hiroyuki Sanada's Scorpion, and Jessica McNamee's Sonya Blade, with Jade (Tati Gabrielle), Queen Sindel (Ana Thu Nguyen), and Quan Chi (Damon Herriman) joining the cast for the first time. The team behind the ultra-violent sequel worked to "maximize everything", to "just build on where we were and then make it significantly more intense, bigger in scale, bigger in variation, bigger across the board really as a cinematic experience," director Simon McQuoid told EW. "We go to lots of different realms, so that in itself gives the film a very distinct and varied visual approach," McQuoid continued, adding about the vision of the upcoming film: "What I realized was go bigger, go bolder, don't hold back, and really feed off the history of Mortal Kombat more. Just let it rip, and that's what we've done." Mortal Kombat 2 is set to be released in cinemas on October 24, 2025. For more, check out the other upcoming video game movies coming your way very soon.
