After a long stretch of silence, fans are finally being fed some information on New Line Cinema’s upcoming Mortal Kombat sequel. The latest bit of news comes from the film’s writer, Jeremy Slater, who recently spoke with Comic Book about the process of developing a second entry that’s even bigger and better than the first. A promise made at the very end of 2021’s franchise starter was that one of the series’ main protagonists, Johnny Cage, would make his grand return to the big screen in the next installment. Slater is stating this promise will indeed come to fruition, as the creatives behind the movie have no intentions of lying to fans:
Johnny Cage is one of my favorite characters, and I think there’s definitely a promise with the way the first movie ends of seeing Cole being like, ‘Okay, my next stop is to go recruit Johnny.’ So I think if he wasn’t included in the sequel at all, it would feel very strange.
Jeremy Slater
Curiously, however, Slater is not yet sure just how involved Cage will be in the story of Mortal Kombat 2. It’s easy to assume the first movie’s stinger was to set up Cage as a major player for the second go-around, but the former Moon Knight writer wants to focus on making a story that works before he forces in more Johnny than necessary:
It’s still a little bit up in the air how much he will be included, it’s one of the things we’re currently working on. But yeah, I love Johnny and I would love to really do the definitive version, if possible, and really take everything that’s fun about that character and bring that to live action.
Jeremy Slater
In the video games, Johnny Cage is a movie star and expert martial artist who enters his first Mortal Kombat tournament as a way of proving he doesn’t rely on doubles or effects in his films. Eventually, however, he would find himself teaming with warrior monk Liu Kang, special operative Sonya Blade, and the thunder god Raiden to take down Shang Tsung and save Earth, falling in love with Blade and discovering his true potential in the process. He was portrayed by Linden Ashby and Chris Conrad in previous live-action adaptations, though he has yet to be cast for the next movie outing.
Source: Comic Book
