Mortal Kombat II Trailer Showcases Karl Urban’s Down on His Luck Johnny Cage: 'He Has No Self-Confidence'

IGN is excited to stock with you the marque caller trailer for Mortal Kombat II, which you tin ticker via the subordinate embedded below. The trailer debuted during a unrecorded watercourse Thursday greeting betwixt IGN, Warner Bros. Pictures, and IMAX. Ahead of the trailer’s planetary online debut, I was capable to chat exclusively with histrion Karl Urban – who brings the iconic Johnny Cage to beingness successful Mortal Kombat II – arsenic good arsenic manager Simon McQuoid and shaper Todd Garner successful their archetypal extended interviews astir the highly anticipated sequel.

The 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat, besides directed by McQuoid, was released simultaneously successful theaters and connected HBO Max during the COVID-19 pandemic, wherever it became the streamer’s astir palmy movie motorboat ever.

“When we made the [first] movie, Warner Bros. didn't cognize however radical were going to react. They didn't know. We didn't person a immense fund to bash immoderate we wanted to do,” Garner recalled. “We surely couldn't vie with the immense superhero movies by immoderate agelong of the imagination, truthful we were constricted by the standard and scope of that movie due to the fact that they didn't truly cognize what they had.”

“The information that the movie did truthful good connected HBO Max, and evidently present that we person Mike De Luca astatine Warner Bros. and Pam Abdy, they truly knew not lone what they had from the numbers from HBO Max, but they besides knew, Mike knew due to the fact that helium has specified a fondness for the series. They gave america much scale, much scope to bash the fights, much fighting, which is costly rather frankly.” (De Luca, it should beryllium noted, was a young enforcement astatine New Line Cinema successful the 1990s wherever the archetypal Mortal Kombat movies were produced.)

Watch the caller reddish set Mortal Kombat II trailer:

"Most franchises don't commencement with the prequel. Most franchises commencement with the movie and past you bash the prequel, due to the fact that we person a movie that sets up the rules and sets up the world. It doesn't person a tournament, and present we wanted to marque definite that we did the tourney and what radical expect from the Mortal Kombat franchise," Garner explained. "And truthful coming into the movie with Johnny Cage being caller to the tournament, [it's] not hard to follow."

Director McQuoid said a precise ample percent of the movie was changeable successful IMAX, which allowed for the standard of not conscionable the combat scenes but the satellite of Mortal Kombat itself to level up.

“We've got immoderate caller characters coming successful and immoderate of those caller characters are chaotic and otherworldly, similar Shao Kahn. And erstwhile you've got characters similar that, you person to plaything for the fences, really,” McQuoid said. “I wanted to usage what Mortal Kombat had by going to caller realms and giving it a bigger, much chaotic [feel], much scope, and usage the worldly that's conscionable sitting determination acceptable to beryllium used. And so, successful pushing into those caller realms, and we spell to Edenia and we walk a batch of clip there, and that was breathtaking due to the fact that it hasn't truly been portrayed each that much… It was large to bring monolithic standard to that. And besides immoderate of the levels from the game, we were capable to instrumentality those things and standard them up to a large and beauteous place.”

The manager added that “there's immoderate things successful the IMAX version, immoderate small communicative moments and small gems for the ace fans that, if you spot the IMAX version, you'll spot thing successful that mentation that you won't spot successful the regular theatrical version. I conscionable wanted to effort and innovate and usage the format successful a mode that truly makes it a rewarding acquisition for the audience.”

With McQuoid backmost successful the director’s seat and a publication by Moon Knight’s Jeremy Slater, the adjacent measurement was uncovering the close histrion to play Johnny Cage, a instrumentality favourite quality from the games who was lone teased astatine the extremity of the archetypal movie but is the main protagonist of the sequel.

“We didn't cognize if the wide assemblage would bargain an arrogant histrion arsenic the pb of the archetypal movie, oregon would it beryllium unusual that it would beryllium this arrogant histrion successful this fundamentally martial arts movie? Did it consciousness weird?,” Garner said.

“For radical who didn't cognize the crippled and didn't cognize the franchise, would it conscionable consciousness like, ‘Wait, you person these guys with these superpowers that are doing unthinkable martial arts and this arrogant histrion from the nineties? What is this?" It conscionable felt similar it was each implicit the place. So Liu was utilized successful the archetypal movie arsenic the sage, the teacher, the omniscient one, which helium is, and we knew we had to yet get to Johnny Cage due to the fact that he's specified a large beingness successful the franchise.”

Garner was candid astir the challenges of casting Johnny Cage portion besides keeping fans happy. “I get it. Everybody comes to the franchise with their ain emotion of it and their ain feeling of what it should be,” the shaper admits. “I'd person to marque a 100 1000 antithetic movies to delight everybody.”

Garner specifically cites the factions of fans who lobbied for wrestler-actor The Miz, martial artist-actor Scott Adkins, oregon movie stars similar Ryan Reynolds and Glen Powell. “Those 2 gentlemen person monolithic careers and schedules and they marque untold tons and tons of wealth that astir apt wouldn't person needfully acceptable into our budget, fto unsocial our schedule,” Garner said.

“What we tried to bash with this movie successful the casting from the get-go is not person personage casting of like, oh, it's so-and-so playing Liu Kang. We wanted it to beryllium Liu Kang, we wanted it to beryllium Scorpion, we wanted it to beryllium Sub-Zero, Jax, and truthful forth. So it wasn't similar we were going for the biggest star. We wanted to effort to bring the champion to the characters, and Karl, he's an unthinkable actor. I'll enactment him up against anybody, and for this travel of this movie, we needed idiosyncratic to embody Johnny Cage, and helium did that.”

The Johnny Cage of Mortal Kombat II, however, is not rather the aforesaid blowhard typically depicted successful the Mortal Kombat games oregon past movie and TV adaptations. Not initially, anyway. “When we archetypal observe Johnny, helium is benignant of lacking a batch of that quintessential spark that I deliberation fans of the crippled volition know,” Urban told IGN.

“We commencement him astatine a precise debased point. His vocation is wholly successful the dumps. He has nary self-confidence. He has neglected his martial arts training. And astatine his lowest point, helium gets called up to, essentially, beryllium a warrior that represents the Earthrealm and combat for the precise aboriginal of humanity. And arsenic I work the script, I recovered it conscionable specified a compelling, interesting, dynamic journey. We commencement this quality successful 1 place, and arsenic an audience, we get to spot him germinate and grow.”

“A fantastic facet of the penning is they truly humanize the quality of Johnny and he's not immoderate [two-dimensional] character, not that helium ever was, but helium has country to grow. And helium surely does that arsenic helium gains his assurance and gains his content successful his self, [and] immoderate of that benignant of cockiness and swagger starts to travel through.”

While Urban has agelong known of Mortal Kombat, helium credits playing the crippled with his kids – and losing soundly to them – with making him autumn successful emotion with the franchise. “When Mortal Kombat archetypal came out, and I deliberation it was astir '92, I was truthful broke, I couldn't adjacent spend a PlayStation, fto unsocial the game, truthful I benignant of missed retired connected the archetypal question successful it,” the Star Trek and The Boys histrion recalled.

“When I heard that they were doing a 2nd installment of the movie and that Johnny Cage was going to beryllium a immense portion of it, we were precise proactive astir seeking retired the manager and the producers and getting a clasp of the script, which was fantastic,” said Urban. “Jeremy Slater wrote an astonishing script. And yeah, I conscionable couldn't beryllium much thrilled, not lone to represent this mentation of Johnny Cage, but conscionable to beryllium a portion of the Mortal Kombat world.”

To hole for the role, Urban consumed everything helium could astir his iconic quality and the Mortal Kombat franchise and helium besides underwent grooming that helium described arsenic “the astir hard warring that I person ever done successful my career.” But portion the carnal aspects were “a immense challenge,” Urban said his main nonsubjective arsenic an histrion was making Johnny Cage consciousness similar a existent person.

“For me, the challenge, really, was to crushed the quality successful a world and to springiness him a backstory. And my research, isolated from absorbing everything I could astir Mortal Kombat and what had been done with Johnny Cage antecedently and what had been done with him successful the games, was to past truly formulate a backstory,” Urban said.

“Part of my probe is I went on to a clump of karate tournaments and looked astatine young kids coming done and conscionable absorbing myself successful the civilization and imagining young Johnny earlier helium was plucked retired of that into movie stardom, what that was like. And I recovered that conscionable a truly fantastic and fascinating acquisition and a existent eye-opener.”

Urban assured maine that “fans of Johnny Cage are going to beryllium ace delighted by the signature moves and each the nods and elements that we've worked truthful hard to infuse into the movie.” While Urban spoke of the reverence and instrumentality work the filmmakers person enactment into Mortal Kombat II, helium besides acknowledged that “the nonsubjective is besides to marque it accessible to a caller audience. We are making this movie also, not lone for fans of Mortal Kombat, but for fans of cinema and for fans of fun, action, adventure, martial creation movies. And you don't person to person adjacent played Mortal Kombat oregon adjacent seen the archetypal movie to leap consecutive into this.”

Urban past paid the movie 1 of the highest compliments an enactment movie could receive: “I deliberation Mortal Kombat II is to Mortal Kombat what The Road Warrior is to Mad Max. I deliberation that everybody crossed the committee has leveled up successful a important mode close crossed the full production. And I deliberation this practice of this satellite and these characters is the champion we've seen. And I'm ace excited for an assemblage to spot it. As you've seen from the trailer itself … it looks similar a important level-up.”

Mortal Kombat II opens successful theaters October 24, 2025. Look for much from IGN’s exclusive interviews with the filmmakers soon.