Aged but Dangerous: Urban’s Johnny Cage Joins Earthrealm Defenders

Karl Urban has traded in his signature butcher’s coat from The Boys to don a pair of slick shades for Warner Bros.’ Mortal Kombat II. The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek alum will star in the sequel as the arrogant and oh-so-handsome martial arts movie star Johnny Cage. Cage is a fan-favorite character in the long-running video game series, and this latest film will follow the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot. Mortal Kombat II will be the fourth live-action feature since the original game adaptation, which was released back in 1995.

The trailer came just a day after Warner Bros. also released an in-universe fake trailer for the cheesy ’90s-style action flick Uncaged Fury, which stars Johnny Cage as its lead. That trailer poked fun at Cage’s other (fictional) movies like Cool Hand Cage, Hard to Cage, and Rebel Without a Cage.

2025 also happens to be the 30th anniversary of the first live-action Mortal Kombat, which bombed with critics when it came out but was a box office hit and has gone on to have cult-classic status. Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa’s performance as the sorcerer Shang Tsung is often held up as the gold standard by fans of the character. A sequel, 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, performed drastically worse both critically and commercially. The game’s publisher, Midway, went bankrupt not long after the film’s release.

In 2018, Warner Bros. acquired the rights to Mortal Kombat and brought on Simon McQuoid to direct the live-action reboot more than two decades after the original film. McQuoid’s film, which was released in 2021, saw Lewis Tan as Cole Young, an MMA fighter who gets embroiled in an interdimensional battle for Earthrealm. It was met with a lukewarm critical reception but found enough commercial success to warrant a sequel, also from McQuoid. The first film ended with Cole Young on his way to Los Angeles in search of Johnny Cage, and that’s where Mortal Kombat II picks up.

The official synopsis for Mortal Kombat II offers no hand-holding and assumes that potential viewers will have seen the first film. In the sequel, the champions (now including Cage) will have to battle it out in a no-rules free-for-all tournament to prevent Shao Kahn from conquering the realm of Earthrealm. The preview makes it clear that if Kahn’s army of assassins can’t be stopped, Earthrealm will be destroyed.

The new trailer has several cast members returning for the sequel, including Lewis Tan as Cole Young, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han/Noob Saibot (aka 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 sequel will also have several new faces as other major Mortal Kombat characters. Tati Gabrielle (The Boys) is Jade, Adeline Rudolph is Kitana, Damon Herriman—who voiced Kabal in the last film—will star as Quan Chi, Martyn Ford is Shao Kahn, CJ Bloomfield is Baraka, Desmond Chiam is King Jerrod, and Ana Thu Nguyen is Queen Sindel.

The trailer opens with an introduction to Johnny Cage that is equal parts mocking and self-aware. Cage is in a low-budget bar and is stopped by an eager fan. “I loved Citizen Cage as a kid,” the fan excitedly tells him. “They should do a reboot!” Cage, who hasn’t aged well in this regard, counters that “nobody wants that” since the kind of action flicks he stars in are a dead genre from the 1990s.

Lord Raiden and Sonya Blade burst in on Cage’s conversation and tell him that he has been “chosen to fight.” Cage, as one would expect, is under the impression that they’re just as much fans as the guy who interrupted his drink. He’s proven wrong when they transport him to a luminous and mystical coliseum for a “fighting tournament to the death.” “F— that,” he says when Raiden and Sonya explain the stakes.

Cage argues that he’s completely ordinary and doesn’t have any supernatural abilities, so he’s reluctant to participate. He tells Raiden that “I’m just incredibly handsome,” but he relents when it’s explained to him that Earthrealm is at stake if the champion’s fight. He has one stipulation when he agrees to participate: “Don’t f— with my face.” At this point, the trailer dives into the classic Mortal Kombat action that fans expect, including a series of gruesome fight scenes that feature dramatic camera angles, signature finishing moves, and nostalgic one-liners, including the obligatory Scorpion “Get over here!”