"The reason we held back on Johnny Cage is because he's a very egotistical guy, he's a scoundrel, he's funny, he's bigger-than-life...and so is Kano. So are we going to have two guys competing and trying to [be funnier or more egotistical] or do you hold Johnny Cage because, God willing, we're able to do another one?" Garner explains. "Rain and Reptile? They both cloak and you don't want two cloaking guys; first of all, it's expensive and, second, they do the same thing. You unwind it that way, with people we can see later. There are also characters with such complicated backstories with other characters, you want to give them more service."
I’m glad they confirmed it. People were going MAD looking at leaks from people when they didn’t include Cage lol. I would’ve liked him in but I get it.
If they’re going to do multiple films then I’m not upset about it. Even if they do just one more after this, there’s a metric fuck ton of characters that won’t make it in.
I'm an extremely casual MK fan, but always thought Johnny Cage was whack. Didn't realize he was so beloved
There’s also going to be (I’m assuming) a ton of deaths in this movie from major characters. They have a massive pool to pull from but very few that are meaningful characters. If Kano is your comedic relief, there’s no need for Cage.
I’m fine with them excluding Cage for sure. I did think the new character might end up being a version of him but I’m cool with whatever
Linden Ashby nailed the role in the first film and the character is so popular I think they’d like this film to be successful and then be able to cast someone notable in the role with a bigger budget second film.
I think that was probably the line of thinking from the directors. Hold off on Cage in the first film and try to land a notable actor to play the role (off the success of the first one) in the sequel. Cage is by no means the most popular MK character but he’s probably the most popular in terms of someone that you can actually see their face and isn’t a ninja or an overlord or wearing some wild outfit.
We'll probably get at least two sequels with Cage appearing at some point if this does as well as expected. I'm excited about the storytelling potential in this. MK's always had great worldbuilding and characters so it shouldn't be insurmountable to do it justice as a movie, unlike most game-to-movie attempts. Re-watched the original and it STILL holds up as the fantastical Enter the Dragon homage blockbuster that it is, complete with the emotionally satisfying ending and everything. As mentioned a few posts back, if the writers want to raise the stakes here, unexpectedly fatality-ing a bunch of main characters GoT-style would be a bonkers creative choice that'll keep things fresh. There's no shortage of iconic characters to join the roster in the sequels, plus some from the newer games. Also there's a theory that Cole is gonna be revealed as Kuai Liang (Sub Zero's younger brother), who in the game lore of course ends up being the next Sub Zero. If the current one gets killed off, that's who he'll become, so this might be truer to the games than the trailers make it seem.
There’s some leaked screens going around of Goro and I love what they did for him. I’ll always adore the silliness of the 90s one though.
There’s some more shots of Kabal as well and I’m certain they did that look better than literally any other character. It’s so fucking good.
I saw the Goro pics and they were not great quality, but also did see some that confirm Nathan Jones is playing the Crude Hammer version of Reiko, and is definitely the guy getting his head smashed by Jax. Not Shao Khan like everyone thought from the stage videos. They both use hammers that look alike. Also why he’s seen standing behind Shang Tsung in that full new Kabal photo. Also came across this.
Yeah there are a bunch of new clips in short trailers. Still didn’t give away too much more than we already knew except for the confirmation of one character we hadn’t seen yet. Nitara
This also now comes out on the second anniversary of the MK11 release. Wonder if there will be some game content.