Why Johnny Cage is the perfect protagonist for Mortal Kombat 2 (and the series as a whole)

After watching the trailer for Mortal Kombat 2, it certainly looks like Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage will be our protagonist. Cole Young, the protagonist of the 2021 film, can be seen in two shots of the new trailer, one of which is him in the background. So, random plot twist aside, I assume JC will at least play a major role, as he should have been from the first film.

To me, Johnny Cage has always been linked to Liu Kang as the lead actor for Mortal Kombat as a franchise. Scorpion and Sub-Zero are your poster boys, but the characters with the most potential have always been Johnny and Liu. Johnny especially feels perfectly designed for film adaptations, and that’s not just because he used to be an actor.

Johnny Cage is a great lens for audiences. If you’ve never played Mortal Kombat, you’ll be in the same boat as Johnny when he first appears, whether in the upcoming film or in the rebooted story of MK9 and then MK1. He is as baffled by the lizard men, the guys with swords sticking out of their forearms and the lightning gods as you are. Johnny’s ignorant, somewhat sarcastic perspective gives a writer a protagonist who can inform the audience about the world and its lore through each new thing they learn. You don’t have to overwhelm a viewer or player with the text of a Star Wars movie explaining the Mortal Kombat tournament, the politics of Outworld and Earthrealm. Most of what you get is what Johnny sees, and the rest is a big mystery that unfolds over time.

Johnny Cage is an ex-Hollywood star and an incredibly capable martial artist, but he’s the closest thing to a normal guy to Mortal Kombat. He has no powers (aside from throwing green orbs in the game and some Aztec ancestry he acquired in MKX), he’s not trained by monks and he sees the ridiculousness of the Mortal Kombat tournament for what it is. Johnny is charismatic, he’s funny and he has a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor, which lends itself very well to the Mortal Kombat series, which could easily become too farcical if it always played itself super fair.

I’m not saying Johnny Cage is the quips savior of Mortal Kombat, but his levity gives his character another sense of familiarity. Johnny’s cocky shell is a great way to introduce him, before you realize how vulnerable that shell is and the former Hollywood star is revealed. Johnny is an actor, so no one is really surprised when his initial persona becomes an act. But again, this serves itself perfectly for a film’s story, as it gives your character depth beyond comic relief. Johnny’s highs and lows are all on him, and so you want to make sure he gets it right. Even without powers, he becomes an even bigger underdog.

It baffled me when Johnny Cage was completely absent from Mortal Kombat (2021), especially when I saw Cole Young essentially take his place. Cole, a skilled martial artist who has no idea what a Mortal Kombat is, has many similarities in the introductory role he plays to the world, but without humor or depth he feels very much like a blind wall. He then falls into dangerous self-insertion when it is revealed that he is a distant relative of Scorpion, defeating Goro of all people.

By the way, this is not a knock against Lewis Tan’s performance. I think he did a great job, but there’s a reason why Cole Young hasn’t been brought into the gaming universe of Mortal Kombat (yet). He is a bland, regular action hero, in a setting where bland can never really be used to describe anything else. Johnny Cage adds just that little extra spice you need. All the evidence that Johnny is a stronger character than Cole exists in the Mortal Kombat 2 trailer. His arc is built into him, he is fully formed and ready to be put into a story. Cole feels like he walked out of a Netflix action movie that you would unfortunately forget about halfway through watching. Who he is doesn’t matter as much as what he is (a fighter, descendant of Scorpion), which means you can’t get an audience as attached to him.

As mentioned, Liu Kang also fits the role of Mortal Kombat’s protagonist. The monk destined to defeat Shao Kahn. The man who spent his whole life training for the Mortal Kombat tournament, he is a driven and strong character. While it fits well with the games, I don’t think Liu Kang is as transferable to a movie as Johnny Cage. Cage takes Mortal Kombat to a more real, relatable level while still having mystical powers and gory deaths, while Liu Kang takes the mystique and throws it to the moon. He becomes a half-lightning, half-fire god in Mortal Kombat 11 while controlling all the time. It’s a wild ride, and yet I think it would leave a movie theater full of people scratching their heads instead of pumping their fists when Johnny Cage hits the splits and someone hits a note.

I don’t expect Mortal Kombat 2 to win Oscars if Johnny Cage takes center stage, but I do think it can live up to its potential as a raucously fun action movie with the crazy washed-up actor at the forefront. Also, judging by the test previews, the filmmakers seem to have done a good job, and I hope much of that is due to my man JC.