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topicnews · July 17, 2025

The trailer of Mortal Kombat II shows Karl Urban from his happiness Johnny Cage: “He has no confidence”

The trailer of Mortal Kombat II shows Karl Urban from his happiness Johnny Cage: “He has no confidence”


IGN is happy to share the brand new trailer Mortal Kombat IIWhat you can watch about the player embedded below. The trailer debut during a live stream on Thursday morning between IGN, Warner Bros. Pictures and Imax. Before the global online debut of the trailer, I was able to chat exclusively with the actor Karl Urban – who brings the legendary Johnny Cage to life in Mortal Kombat II – as well as Director Simon McQuoid And producer Todd Garner in her first extensive interviews about the eagerly expected sequel.

The restart of 2021 from Mortal KombatMcQuoid also published in the cinemas and on HBO Max during the Covid 19 pandemic, where it became the most successful film start of the streamer ever.

“When we did that [first] The film Warner Bros. didn't know how people would react. You didn't know. We didn't have a big budget to do everything we wanted, “Garner recalled.

“The fact that the film cuts off on HBO Max so well, and now that we have Mike de Luca with Warner Bros. and Pam Abdy, they really didn't know what they had from HBO Max's numbers, but also knew that Mike knew because he gave a preference for the series. was in which the original Mortal combat films were produced.)

Take a look at the new trailer of the Red Band Mortal Kombat II:

“Most franchises do not start with the prequel. Most franchises start with the film and then make the prequel because we have a film that sets up the rules and sets up the world. It has no tournament, and now we wanted to make sure that we did the tournament and what people expect from the mortal combat franchise,” explained Garner. “And to get into the film so, with Johnny Cage being new to the tournament, [it’s] Not difficult to follow. “

Director McQuoid said a very large percentage of the film was shot in IMAX, which was not only made possible by the fight scenes, but also to the world of the Mortal Kombat itself.

“We have some new characters and some of these new characters are wild and like Shao Kahn. And if they have such characters, they really have to swing for the fences,” said McQuoid. “I wanted to use what mortal combat had by going into new areas and there were larger, wilder [feel]More circumference and use the material that only sits there to be used. And so when we push ourselves into these new areas, we go to Edenia and we spend a lot of time there, and that was exciting because it wasn't really that much … It was great to bring a massive extent. And also some of the levels from the game we were able to record these things and scale them to a large and beautiful place. “

The director added: “There are some things in the IMAX version, some small moments and small jewels for superfans, that if you see the IMAX version, in this version you will see something that you will not see in the regular theater version that I just wanted to try to use the format in a way that really makes it a rewarding experience for the audience.”

With McQuoid again on the chairmanship of the director and a script of Jeremy Slater from Moon RitterThe next step was to find the right actor to play Johnny Cage. A fan favorite figure from the games Who was Only annoyed at the end of the first film But is the main actor of the sequel.

“We didn't know whether the general audience would buy an arrogant actor as a guidance of the first film, or would it be strange that this arrogant actor was basically in this martial art film, did it feel strange?” Said Garner.

“For people who didn't know the game and did not know the franchise, it would just feel like this:” Wait, you have these boys with these superpowers, the incredible martial arts, and this arrogant actor from the nineties? What is that? “It just felt like it was everywhere. So in the first film, Liu was used as a wise, the teacher who used what he was, and we knew that we finally had to come to Johnny Cage because he was such a great presence in the franchise.”

Garner was open about the challenges of filling Johnny Cage and at the same time making the fans happy. “I understand it. Everyone comes with their own love for it and their own feeling what it should be,” admits the producer. “I would have to make a hundred thousand different films to please everyone.”

Garner in particular quotes the factions of fans who are committed to wrestler actor The MIZCampaign artist Scott Adkins or film stars such as Ryan Reynolds and Glen Powell. “These two gentlemen have massive careers and schedules and make a lot of money and a lot of money that probably does not necessarily fit into our budget, let alone in our schedule,” said Garner.

“What we tried with this film in the casting from the beginning has no celebrity casting from Like, Oh, it is so and so that it played Liu Kang. We wanted it to be Liu Kang. We wanted it to be scorpion. Johnny Cage embodied, and he did that.

However, the Johnny cage of Mortal Kombat II is not quite the same blowhard that is typically depicted The mortal combat games or Last film and TV adaptations. Not at first anyway. “When we discover Johnny for the first time, he lacks a lot of this typical spark that I think the fans of the game will know,” Urban told IGN.

“We start a very low point. His career is completely in the dump. He has no self -confidence. He neglected his martial art training. And at his lowest point he will essentially be a warrior who represents the Earthrealm and the struggle for the future of mankind. Develop and grow.”

“A wonderful facet of writing is that she really humanized the character of Johnny and he is not [two-dimensional] Character, not that he has ever been, but he has space to grow. And he definitely does this when he wins his self -confidence and gains his belief in himself, [and] Some of this kind of high spirits and brags come through. “

While Urban has long been known about Mortal Kombat, he attributes the game with his children and loses them and loses them to them -because he fell in love with the franchise. “When Mortal Kombat came out for the first time and I think it was around 1992, I was so broke that I couldn't even afford a playstation, let alone the game, so I missed the first wave in it,” recalled the Star Trek and the boy actor.

“When I heard that they made a second episode of the film and that Johnny Cage would be a large part of it, we were very proactive to search for the director and the producers and to receive the script,” said Urban. “Jeremy Slater wrote an amazing script. And yes, I just couldn't be thrilled anymore, not only to present this version of Johnny Cage, but also to be part of the mortal combat world.”

In order to prepare for the role, Urban consumed everything he could about his iconic character and the mortal combat franchise, and he also completed an apprenticeship that he described as “the most difficult fights I had ever done in my career”. But while the physical aspects were “a big challenge”, Urban said that his main goal as an actor was to feel Johnny Cage like a real person.

“For me, the challenge was really to earth in a reality and give it a background story. And my research, apart from that, everything I could, about mortal combat and what had been done with Johnny Cage before and what had been done in the games was really a background story,” said Urban.

“Some of my research is that I went to a series of karate tournaments and looked at myself to assert myself and only to take up my culture and to introduce the young Johnny before he was put into the film from this film.

“Mortal Kombat II is what the street warrior is for Mad Max.

Urban assured me that “fans of Johnny Cage on the Signature Moves and all the nods and elements that we have worked so hard into the film will be very pleased.” While Urban spoke of thewe and fan service, the filmmakers in Mortal Kombat II also admitted that “the goal is to make it accessible to a new audience. We also make this film not only for fans of Mortal Kombat, but also for fans of cinema and for fans of fun, action, adventure, adventure, adventure, martial arts. The first film to jump directly into that. “

Urban then paid the film one of the highest compliments that an action film could receive: “I think Mortal Kombat II is to do a Mortal combination, which the Road Warrior is for crazy Max. I think that everyone is altogether in a significant way.

Mortal Kombat II opened in cinemas on October 24, 2025. Shortly look for IGN's exclusive interviews with the filmmakers.

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