Mortal Kombat II exclusive: Karl Urban talks about transforming into the iconic Johnny Cage, adopting martial arts for the role

Mortal Kombat, the video game, remains a favorite of people. However, the films have seen a varied fate over the more than three decades of their existence. Following a revival in 2021, the series confirmed a sequel to the Mortal Kombat film, and the fourth installment in the franchise, Mortal Kombat II, is coming to fans this May. Ahead of its release, the film’s star Karl Urban exclusively shared some details with IHNS about his involvement in the project.

Karl Urban explains how he became Johnny Cage for Mortal Kombat II

Transforming into American action film star Johnny Cage, a martial arts enthusiast, meant becoming knee-deep in the stunts that came with the role. Karl Urban took it upon himself to completely adapt to the role, including learning about its mannerisms and the setting. Talking about the challenge it was physically, he revealed, “When we first meet Johnny Cage, he’s a very desperate character. His career is in the tank, and he’s fallen on hard times. He’s not in a great way at the beginning of our story. Johnny’s journey through this movie is one of how he finds himself, how he finds his inner strength. It was a brilliant script from Jeremy Slater, and it “Takes Johnny on a big journey, and I was attracted to that.”

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Sharing how he went back to the drawing board, which meant from the beginning he learned everything possible about the character, including the most important, physical bits. He said, “As part of my research, I delved deeply into the culture of martial arts and martial arts tournaments, because that’s where Johnny grew up. And then when I landed at the airport to start shooting the film, they picked me up and took me straight to stunt rehearsals, because stunt choreography was such a big job. So, from day one, I was thrown in the deep end. We had an extraordinary stunt team – one of the best I’ve ever worked with. – and I’m so grateful to all of them and I’m extremely excited for audiences to see what we have in store!”

Sharing the story of how the heroes of Earthrealm are now joined by Johnny Cage, who must fight his own comrades while trying to stop Shao Kahn’s control and its effects on them. The martial arts fantasy film, Mortal Kombat II, will hit the screens on May 8, 2026.