Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid reveals why they decided to exclude Johnny Cage from the live-action reboot.
The live-action Mortal Kombat reboot is missing a very key antagonist in Johnny Cage. The film subs him out for a newly-created character named Cole Young who is played by Lewis Tan, an actor best known for his work on Netflix’s Wu Assassins and then Ryan Reynolds starrer Deadpool 2. Like many fans, I wondered why Mortal Kombat would exclude one of the franchise’s most popular characters and when I got the chance to chat with director of the film I asked him.
During a recent chat, Simon McQuoid, the director of Mortal Kombat, told us why he chose that specific roster and revealed the reasons behind Johnny Cage’s exclusion from the reboot. “There was no one really off limits early on. The set of characters had been pretty much organized when I came on board. We brought in a few new characters, Kabal came in, Nitara came in, Reiko was there. [There] was a little bit of adjustment, but our main characters were there. And Johnny Cage is a very tricky, complex character that really needed… that has such a gravitational force around him of his own, that really would have just… everything would have started to orbit around him.” McQuoid revealed to Heroic Hollywood. “That was our creative thought process there. So we [were like] let’s set an ensemble, a very even ensemble that then once we’ve got that better down, if the fans allow us to and want a sequel, it’s not us to decide, it’s the audience to decide. But if we do go there, then at least there’s something better down for this very big personality to come into. That was our thought process.”
You can check out the full interview below.
Do you think it was the right decision to exclude Johnny Cage? What did you think of the Mortal Kombat reboot? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Mortal Kombat was first adapted into a feature film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, the filmmaker behind the Resident Evil series with Milla Jovovich. The film earned a worldwide total of $122 million and is widely regarded as one of the better adaptations of a video game.
Directed by Simon McQuoid from a script written by Greg Russo, Mortal Kombat stars Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Mehcad Brooks as Jackson “Jax” Briggs, Josh Lawson as Kano, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Max Huang as Kung Lao, Sisi Stringer as Mileena and Elissa Cadwell as Nitara. Lewis Tan is also on board in an undisclosed role.
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The post ‘Mortal Kombat’ Director Simon McQuoid On Excluding Johnny Cage appeared first on Heroic Hollywood.
