Mortal Kombat co-creator and movie producer Ed Boon has admitted his feedback on a Johnny Cage fight sequence in Mortal Kombat 2 was way off base.
“I had one where I was dead wrong,” Boon told IGN. “I was reading the script and the sequence with Johnny Cage and Baraka. Baraka says, ‘Johnny fucking Cage’. That line, I was like, ‘There’s no way Baraka would say that, no one is going to laugh at that.’ It’s like one of the biggest laughs in the movie… I’m glad I was wrong.”
While you’ll have to wait until May 8 to see how that showdown pans out between two Mortal Kombat icons, Johnny Cage actor (and series newcomer) Karl Urban has already revealed he gets in the thick of it during the sequel, describing it as the “most difficult physical challenge of his career.” And, yes, he does the Nut Punch. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. And not the good kind of tears.
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“You know, and this was, without a doubt, the most difficult physical challenge that I’ve ever encountered in making a movie,” Urban described to ComicBook.com. “And starting from scratch, starting with just learning how to move, agility, doing speed drills, then learning movement and form and style. Everything is so specific, and it’s not like a brawl where you can just push your way through it.”
Urban is joined in Mortal Kombat 2 by, among others, fresh arrivals Tati Gabrielle and Adeline Rudolph, who play Jade and Kitana, respectively.
Speaking to GamesRadar+ about wanting to bring the characters’ sisterly bond to life on the big screen, Gabrielle said, “This is the first time since the ’90s versions of the films that we’ve seen these two characters [on screen], and our creative team have built a really epic but yet still very grounded world. So it’s like ‘How do we make Jade and Kitana fit into that while still giving the fans what they want of these characters?’ But making them more relatable, making them easier to connect to.”
Mortal Kombat 2 hits cinemas on May 8. For more, check out our guide to upcoming video game movies and producer Todd Garner explaining why the studio “didn’t know what it had” with the 2021 original.
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