The Cage Legacy Continues with Karl Urban in Mortal Kombat II

Karl Urban is leaving behind his green Butcher’s coat and sharp mockingbird eye from The Boys to swap the street for the sun for a pair of designer shades. The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek veteran is set to play the braggadocious martial arts movie star Johnny Cage in the upcoming Mortal Kombat II, the live-action sequel to Warner Bros.’ 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot and the fourth live-action feature to be based on the long-running video game series since the first film premiered in 1995.

The film’s official first trailer was a stroke of genius marketing, if not by pure coincidence, by dropping it a single day after Warner Bros. released an in-universe fake trailer for Uncaged Fury, a cheesy ’90s action movie “starring” Johnny Cage. That trailer was a bit of self-aware, cheeky fun, including jokes about Cage’s other fake movie roles, such as Cool Hand Cage, Hard to Cage, and Rebel Without a Cage.

2025 will also see the 30th anniversary of the first live-action Mortal Kombat. The critical disaster upon release, and even at the time, was a box office success and found a steady cult following in the years after. Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa’s performance as the sorcerer Shang Tsung remains iconic among fans. The film’s sequel, 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, was a far greater failure, critically and commercially, with game publisher Midway going bankrupt not long after.

The rights were later acquired by Warner Bros., which later hired Simon McQuoid to direct a reboot over 20 years after the first film. Lewis Tan’s Cole Young, an MMA fighter whose past links him to Earthrealm, a dimension under attack from interdimensional villains, was introduced to audiences in that 2021 release. Reviews were middling, but it did enough to get a sequel on the table once more, also set to be directed by McQuoid. That film ended with Cole leaving Japan for Los Angeles to find Johnny Cag, and Mortal Kombat II.

The official synopsis for Mortal Kombat II assumes its audience has watched the first film. In the sequel, the champions, now including Cage, square off in a no-holds-barred bloodbath to prevent Shao Kahn from conquering Earthrealm, with the survival of the realm itself in the balance.

Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Joe Taslim, Tadanobu Asano, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Chin Han, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Max Huang will reprise their roles from the first film as Cole Young, Sonya Blade, Bi-Han/Noob Saibot (Sub-Zero), Lord Raiden, Kano, Liu Kang, Jax Briggs, Shang Tsung, Scorpion, and Kung Lao, respectively.

Also joining the cast as new fighters are Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Damon Herriman (the voice of Kabal from the first 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 self-aware film officially introduces Cage at the start of the trailer. He is spotted in a dive bar by a fan who gushes that “I loved Citizen Cage as a kid. They should do a reboot!” The once high-flying actor, now an action star in decline, tersely rebukes the young fan that “nobody wants that” because Cage’s style of movies went out with the 1990s.

The fan’s hero is saved from further embarrassment by Lord Raiden and Sonya Blade, who storm the bar and tell Cage, in no uncertain terms, that “You have been chosen to fight.” Thinking it is a joke, Cage belligerently responds, only to be snapped out of it when he finds himself in an otherworldly stadium and told this will be a “fighting tournament to the death.” His response is predictably one of reluctant defiance: “F— that.”

Cage is quick to point out to Raiden and Sonya that he is no Shaolin monk and that he has no supernatural powers. “I’m just incredibly handsome” is his assessment, but he relents when Raiden says the “survival of an entire realm” is on the line. He does ask that no one hit his face, however. The trailer then has Cage quick to point out after he lands a huge punch on his foe: “We’re not judging by looks in here.”

What follows after is exactly what you’d expect a Mortal Kombat film to have, as the trailer drops a great deal of the film’s best action set pieces in rapid fire, including plenty of blood and iconic finishing moves, while highlighting classic lines from some of the franchise’s most popular characters such as Scorpion and his catchphrase “Get over here!”

Judging by how it’s handling its characters in the trailer, Mortal Kombat II looks like it won’t be reaching past existing fans of the franchise, but its bloody over-the-top combat could well be the film these fans have been waiting for.

Mortal Kombat II is set to be released in theaters on October 24, 2025.